Framingham will declare breech of contract with Durham if no fix over January

As we're into our first deep freeze, when waiting for a late bus becomes downright dangerous, Framingham is taking the ongoing issues with Durham Bus seriously; at last night's Framingham School Committee meeting, the Committee decided there would be a breech of contract unless Durham fulfills a number of obligations by the end of January. Those are:

• When students return from winter break on January 2nd and everyday following, Durham must have at least 76 drivers show up and drive the 76 routes in both the am and pm. It is solely Durham’s responsibility to provide the correct number of drivers to meet the route requirements. They are falling short of their contractual obligation when they deliver students late to school because of missing drivers and they must remedy this basic breach of contract. It is their responsibility to determine how to do so, but ideas include bringing in drivers from other communities, raising hourly wages, subcontracting work (with written FPS permission per Article 11 of the contract), offering additional benefits, and providing individual case management and support to drivers calling out for work.
• If the situation does not improve during the month of January, financial penalties will begin for Durham in February. The City should not have to pay for substandard services. The City further reserves the right to seek reimbursement from Durham to compensate the City for all of the untimely services provided to date under the contract.
• On average, there have been approximately 150 children transported by Durham that are arriving late for school each day. Based on an average per pupil cost of more than $17,000 per year, this results in approximately $2,400 in lost instructional time each day.
• Durham must remove all snow from the roof of buses before routes commence. Durham must take appropriate steps to have staff in place at earlier times to complete this required safety measure. The Framingham Police Department has already warned Durham, and a second round of complaints occurred since. This must cease immediately or further steps will be taken if and when a third violation occurs.
• If improvements are not made by the end of January, the City reserves the right and will take steps to issue an invitation to bid in February 2020 for school bus transportation services starting in the 2020-21 school year. This action would mean that the city would be seeking a new bus contract one and a half years earlier than planned.

Framingham's contract with Durham goes through 2021, unless the breech is declared and the district goes to bid earlier.
If the district isn't receiving the service committed to, the terms of the contract aren't being fulfilled.