Gloversville Enlarged School District officials are preparing for an 11-year shift in transit services.
The district, long under contract with Hamilton-Fulton-Montgomery BOCES, will employ dozens of transportation employees come July 1.
“We’re happy to have more control — local control — over it,” said GESD Superintendent David Halloran.
The shift stems from Greater Johnstown School District’s decision earlier this year to replace transportation services from HFM BOCES with an Amsterdam-based subsidiary of Student Transportation of America Inc. The decision was based on a recommendation from GJSD’s ad-hoc transportation committee in 2023.
HFM BOCES has been contracted with both city districts under a shared-service model since 2013. Such a system requires both GESD and GJSD to be on board.
“We are always supportive of our component districts’ desires and decisions to serve their students in the best manner they see fit and will continue to support both the Johnstown and Gloversville districts as they make this transition,” said HFM BOCES Superintendent David Ziskin in a statement.
Efforts to share transportation services date back to 2009 when GESD and GJSD considered using the same bus garage on state Highway 29A. Such plans were ultimately thwarted to avoid breaking state law.
Two years later, HFM BOCES launched a pilot study to explore potential go-arounds for sharing bus services without the risk of losing transportation aid. Nine Fulmont districts were part of the study.
Halloran was a principal at Fonda-Fultonville when the BOCES transportation partnership started. Before coming to Gloversville in 2018, he served a three-year tenure as superintendent of Oppenheim-Ephratah-St. Johnsville School District, another component district of HFM BOCES.
“The administration at BOCES at the time was hoping that it would grow and more districts would buy into regional transportation with efficiencies and savings realized,” said Halloran. “That didn’t come into fruition.”
About 40 HFM BOCES transit employees will work for GESD next academic year as a result of the reacquisition. Halloran aims to increase in-house runs around the city and potentially decrease GESD’s reliance on an existing partnership with Gloversville Transit System.
“If you heard me, I’m excited for the runs we’ll be able to provide across the city and we should be able to bring most of my runs back in-house,” Halloran said.
The district still plans to outsource runs for special education students. At the March 4 school board meeting, policy makers signed off on three contracts with STA for specialized transportation.
GESD covers 82 square miles, encompassing the namesake city, and a portion of the towns of Johnstown and Bleecker. It’s the largest school district in Fulton County, servicing more than 2,300 students.