Board picks driver's ed firm
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on September 17, 2015 1:46 PM
Two local companies that have been responsible for teaching driver's education in Wayne County Public Schools will continue in that role, now that the state has decided to retain the program.
The Wayne County Board of Education voted Monday to contract with A+ Driving, which handles students at Spring Creek and Southern Wayne high schools, and Quality Driving, which works with students at the remaining schools.
"The information coming from Raleigh is that driver's ed in the budget will be approved sometime this week. We currently do not have any driver's ed companies under contract with us," Finance Officer Beverly Boltinhouse told the board.
She presented them with three possible options, based on bids that had been received before the issue was stalled at the legislative level.
The first option was to maintain contracts with the two driving schools, at a projected cost of $287,596. A third company, Jordan Driving School, came in with lower bids, broken down into two additional options.
Option No. 2 would have the district working with Jordan and using WCPS cars, at a cost of $273,656. Option 3 would have Jordan use its own cars, at a cost of $276,012.
All the figures were based on previous driver's education costs during the 2014-15 school year, using a rate of $21.31 per student, with an estimated 1,394 students taking the course, Mrs. Boltinhouse said.
A+ and Quality are both based locally, operated by current and former educators and staffed by other employees in the district, while Jordan is based out of Kinston and operates in schools around the state, board member Eddie Radford said.
"I think the board knows that A+ and Quality, both of those guys are friends of mine and the people they have employed are teachers that work here in our county," he said. "Even though they're not the lowest bid, I would hope we would look at them closely before we would go out of our county and get somebody.
"We had somebody one time that came in that messed it up so bad we had to overdo the whole process. I'd like to see it stay with them here."
Mrs. Boltinhouse said that Jordan Driving School had indicated they would employ some of the local teachers if they had credentials.
"But they're going to charge us for driving our cars or their cars and it's not applicable for A+ and Quality," board member Dwight Cannon said. "I mean, there's an extra cost if they use their car for the driving per student. Is that right?"
"Using our cars, they're cheaper and then, if we use their cars then we won't have to have our cars," Mrs. Boltinhouse said.
Radford asked what would happen if the district was forced to charge for driver's education.
"Currently we don't charge anything," Mrs. Boltinhouse said. "We can charge up to $65."
The stalemate at the state level left districts pondering what to do should funding disappear and leave the program up to schools to provide. Several board members expressed concern over the costs that would be involved to maintain the cars, including insurance, tires, gas and repairs.
Board member Arnold Flowers said the cost of using driver's ed cars is a big consideration, since some are old and would need to be replaced.
"It seems like to me that we've got a company that will provide cars and we don't have the responsibility of cars and the responsibility to maintain them because you're not calculating the fact that you come out here and one won't crank and somebody's got to take it to the garage and all the responsibilities of maintaining a car," he said. "It just seems like if we have a company that'll provide all the cars and the money is almost the same, it's almost like a no-brainer to me."
Board member Rick Pridgen asked how the transition will be handled, since both driving schools put efforts on hold during the summer.
"Currently I think Craig (Uzzell of A+) has about 140 students that he's yet to drive and Jim (Bennett, of Quality) has about 400 students that he's yet to drive. They've already taken the classroom (portion)," he said. "That's where they stand right now and all of that's kind of been on hold, but man, I have gotten some phone calls from some parents and we all have probably. But anyway, the point I'm trying to make, they said that they're going to drive these kids."
He said he was concerned about those students and how that will be funded.
"They're paid in separate increments," Mrs. Boltinhouse replied. "They have been paid for those 500 and some odd students for the classroom portion."
She said records have been kept of those who have taken the classroom part and have not driven, with hopes the driving portion will be funded by the state. She also brought up another question for the board.
"There are parents that decided not to wait for student birthdays over the summer, and so they contacted these three companies and paid on their own," she said. "You probably will get some requests for repayments."
"That to me is like someone sending their child to private school," Pridgen said. "They make the decision to send their child to private school. If they're willing to pay the tuition, we're not reimbursing that. We don't have a voucher system."
Board member Jennifer Strickland made a motion to accept Option 3, with Jordan Driving School using its own cars.
The vote was 4-2 -- with Flowers and Strickland in favor and Cannon, Pridgen, Radford and Chris West opposed. Pat Burden abstained.
Radford countered with a motion to go with Option 1, retaining A+ and Quality.
It passed 6-1, with Flowers the only dissenting vote.