Could CMS outsource transportation? | Schools

By Dedrick Russell - bio l email

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - Charlotte - Mecklenburg school (CMS) board has instructed superintendent Peter Gorman to investigate privatizing certain departments within the district.   Board members want to know if it will help the district out of a financial bind.

The school district is facing a potential $100 million budget shortfall.

One area the superintendent is looking at giving up is transportation.  CMS spends nearly $60 million each year for transportation.   School board member Kaye McGarry says this financial crisis has her thinking about the district's priorities.

"Transportation is not our core mission," McGarry said.  "Our core mission is education."

Gorman knows a little bit about outsourcing.  At his last job as superintendent in California, another company was in charge of transportation.

"It worked moderately well," Gorman said. "Service wasn't better than we have here; service wasn't worse than we have here."

We wanted to know what school bus drivers think of a third party taking over.  Ted Russell, president of the Teamsters Local #71, says it might make his constituent's lives a little easier.

"Most assuredly," Russell said.  "Because there would be a collective bargaining agreement, and both parties will have to live by that agreement, which it can't be changed daily - as it is with CMS."

Gorman says outsourcing can be good but makes this warning.

"It's not a magic bullet," Gorman said.  "You got to evaluate each case and each situation. If it makes sense in that situation then do it, if it doesn't, then don't do it."

The superintendent presents his findings to the board in February.

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