MIDDLEBOROUGH — For the first time in five years, Middleborough’s public schools are getting ready to put student busing out to bid.

The School Committee’s budget subcommittee meets online Tuesday, Oct. 13, at 6 p.m. Its agenda, posted this morning, lists four items: “Transportation Bid,” “Bid Consultant Contracting,” a review of the monthly budget report, and a “Plan for Carrying Out Subcommittee Charge.” The public can join through Google Meet at meet.google.com/sty-ohya-kbz.

The agenda gives no detail on any item. It does not say what the consultant would do or what it would cost. Under the committee’s practice, a subcommittee’s work goes to the full School Committee as a recommendation, Pennini said in August.

The last renewal is used up

The district’s busing has been run by Five Star Bus under a contract that began with three years and allowed two one-year renewals. The School Committee has now used both.

On Jan. 9, 2025, the committee voted to take the first renewal, according to the minutes. The minutes record the vote as 5 in favor and 1 against, though only five members took part after the chair at the time, Allin Frawley, recused himself and left the meeting. Michael Perrone, then the district’s director of business and finance, said the extra year would cost $57,000 more, a 2.3 percent increase. Then-Superintendent Carolyn Lyons said another year would give the district more data before deciding whether to go out to bid. Member Christopher Benson said starting over with a new company would bring back the learning curve the district went through at the start of that school year. The no vote came from member Ezekiel Lewis, who said bus drivers had told him they were unhappy with how Five Star runs its business.

On March 5, 2026, the committee took the second and final renewal, 4-0, with Frawley again recusing himself, according to minutes posted on the district’s School Committee page. Perrone, by then acting superintendent, put the cost at $2,610,945 for the year, covering regular routes, the late bus and the bus to Bristol County Agricultural High School. “Next year, the District will have to go out to bid,” the minutes quote him as saying.

Benson asked whether the price will go up when the district bids. Perrone “responded in the affirmative,” according to the minutes. He also praised Five Star’s last two school openings, saying students were on time.

A teacher saw it differently. Leslie Lemieux, a first-grade teacher at the Burkland school, told the committee that buses are called late at dismissal, at 3:26, 3:27 and 3:29 p.m. against a 3:20 end to her day, which she said adds up to about 15 hours of lost prep time a year. The committee approved the renewal with a note asking the acting superintendent to look into daily late-bus dismissal times.

At that meeting, member Susan Pennini, now the committee’s chair, asked whether there was a transportation subcommittee. Perrone said he did not believe so. Chair Jessica Chartoff said Benson had been the committee’s unofficial point person on busing. Benson now chairs the budget subcommittee, which is taking up the bid.

Who pays for the buses

Busing does not come out of the school budget that Town Meeting votes. The town carries it in separate accounts, as Perrone noted in March. The town’s revised fiscal 2027 budget book sets aside $3,424,301 for contracted school transportation, which includes the Five Star contract, and $1,010,707 for other school transportation costs. Together that is $4,435,008.

That means a higher bid would land on the town side of the ledger, where Interim Town Manager Robert Nunes is already dealing with a budget adjustment of more than $1 million, an unfinished audit and shortfalls in the water and trash funds, as The G.O.A.T. News has reported.

School money is also on the Nov. 9 Special Town Meeting warrant. Article 5 of the draft warrant asks voters to cover a $161,769.29 deficit in the town’s COVID-19 expenses account, left when federal reimbursements came in lower than expected. Nunes told the Select Board on Sept. 28 that the deficit originated with the School Department, according to the board’s draft minutes.

A budget that cost 18.5 jobs

The subcommittee will also review the district’s monthly budget report. The schools started this year after a hard spring. In his final budget update on June 11, Perrone said keeping current services would have taken $44,836,262 from the town, leaving a gap of $1,986,262, according to the minutes. The district cut 18.5 positions, down from 29.5 projected in February, and Perrone said six were true layoffs.

The figures for the town’s appropriation do not match. Perrone’s June presentation listed a local appropriation of $42,850,000. The town’s May 6 revised budget book lists $42,750,000 for the schools, $400,000 less than the district’s $43.15 million request.

Interim Superintendent David L. Thomson, who also serves as director of business and finance, told the committee on Aug. 27 that spending was on track and that an effort at the State House that could have restored some cut positions had stalled. He said he would report more after the first payroll. His Sept. 10 report covered the bullying handbook and the opening of school, and the minutes record no budget figures.

At the Aug. 27 meeting, resident Robert Sullivan of Cedar Street asked whether the committee receives regular financial statements under a 2014 policy, including encumbrances and projections of which accounts will run over or under, and whether those reports are shared with the public.

A new subcommittee, a new finance team

The committee named its subcommittees on Aug. 27. The budget subcommittee is Benson, who chairs it, Pennini and Sean Mokeler. Pennini said every subcommittee should start working out how it will meet the committee’s goals for the year, one of which is to “develop a long-range strategic budget that maps to strategic goals and forecasting.” The subcommittee first met Sept. 16, with “Discussion/Budget” as its only item, The G.O.A.T. News reported. Minutes of that meeting have not been posted.

The people running the numbers have changed. Perrone, who served as acting superintendent and finance director last year, resigned and became interim assistant superintendent of finance and operations at Old Rochester Regional, effective Sept. 21, The G.O.A.T. News reported. Thomson started July 1 on a one-year appointment. The committee plans to vote on a permanent superintendent on Dec. 10, with a July 1, 2027, start, according to the Aug. 27 minutes. That is the same day a new busing contract would take effect.

The committee’s Sept. 24 agenda listed a budget update under Perrone’s name, three days after his new job began. Minutes of that meeting have not been posted.

Barrella serves on the Middleborough Finance Committee and the Town Manager Search Committee. The Finance Committee makes recommendations to Town Meeting on the town budget, including the school appropriation, the school transportation accounts and the warrant article on the COVID-19 deficit. The search committee has no role in these matters.