NYC school bus service to continue after deal averts disruption
NEW YORK (WABC) -- New York City public school students will have buses as normal next week after all school bus companies said they agreed to sign another emergency extension of their contract.
The mayor's office said in a statement: "Mayor Adams has remained committed to ensuring that our public school students can safely get to and from schools, and we are glad to hear that thanks to our efforts, our contracted school buses will continue to serve students on Monday without disruption. We expect to be directly informing families about this resolution tomorrow."
A spokesperson for the city's Department of Education added: "We appreciate the vendors reconsidering their position and recognizing how devastating this would be for our most vulnerable students in the nation's largest school system."
A statement from a spokesperson for the lawyer stresses that the companies "look forward to finalizing this contract at the November PEP meeting."
The statement went on to say the bus companies will likely be in this same position next month.
"First and foremost, in good faith, we are signing the 30-day extension because, in the end, this is about the children and our employees, period," the statement said.
The contracts for the buses that transport 150,000 public school students have been approved on a month-to-month emergency basis since the end of June -- the result of an ongoing dispute.
The unions that represent 12,000 unionized workers want a five-year contract extension, which has already been negotiated between the bus companies, the city Education Department and the mayor's office.
But the Panel for Education Policy, which reviews the Education Department's large contracts, unanimously opposed the contract at its meeting Wednesday night, saying it lacks adequate employee protections and service improvements.
While the PEP's 24-member board includes a simple majority appointed by the mayor, the administration has let three seats go vacant, and some Adams appointees on the PEP appear to be asserting independence from the mayor.
The mayors office said it is urging the PEP to approve the contract extension on the table, but under current mayoral control laws, the PEP has new voting powers and the decision is not solely up to the mayor.
"These are issues we must keep in mind if/when mayoral accountability is removed," a city official added
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