Kenai Peninsula school board votes Monday on $78.3 million busing deal

The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District board votes Monday on a seven-year school bus contract whose first year would cost about $2.2 million more than the district budgeted for all busing this school year.

MV Transportation Inc. would get the contract. It outscored the only other bidder, First Student, 337.52 to 304, in the district's scoring.

MV's price for daily home-to-school busing totals $78.3 million over seven years. It starts at $9.99 million in the first year, which begins in July 2027, and climbs to $12.36 million by the seventh.

This school year, the district budgeted $7.75 million for student transportation, according to its September finance report.

The contract pays MV "subject to adequate funding" from the state Department of Education and lets the district cut back or end it "if available funding is reduced for any reason." District documents posted for Monday's meeting don't say how the district would pay the higher price.

At a work session the same day, the board takes up draft legislative priorities that ask the state to "fully reimburse school transportation based on actual district-reported costs."

The base price covers 38 regular routes and 18 special education routes. Extended school year busing for special needs students, activity trips and fuel are billed on top. The contract sets fuel at $3 a gallon, and each month the district would pay the difference when fuel costs more and get a credit when it costs less.

The contract runs through June 2034 and covers the central peninsula, the Homer area, including Kachemak-Selo and Voznesenka, and Seward.