PALMER — A Mat-Su school bus worker strike will stretch into a fifth week after a union representing employees and the region’s primary bus contractor failed to reach an agreement Thursday.
Negotiations between Teamsters 959 and Durham School Services on Thursday ended without an agreement and are scheduled to resume April 1 via a web-based meeting, a union official said late Thursday afternoon.
Union officials did not provide details about progress during the Thursday negotiations. Durham officials said the sides made progress during the talks.
“The parties involved had a productive meeting yesterday and so far have reached tentative agreements on the majority of the issues/articles under discussion,” Durham spokesman Edward Flavin said in a statement.
The union represents about 230 Durham workers, including bus drivers and attendants. A contract between the workers and Durham expired Feb. 4.
The strike, which started March 2, impacts more than 18,000 students across Mat-Su’s core area, Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District officials said earlier this month.
Mat-Su officials were able to restart seven special education bus routes this week serving schools in Houston and Big Lake, as well as Su Valley Jr/Sr High School students, after Durham brought in some temporary bus drivers from out of state, district spokesman John Notestine said in an interview Thursday.
Guardians for special education students who are guaranteed transportation as part of their individual learning plans can receive mileage reimbursements for transporting their students to and from school, Notestine said. Those who cannot get to school because of the worker strike will receive extra educational support to meet the time requirements included in their learning plans, he said.
Overall school attendance across the region dropped about 2% this month compared with the same period last year, when buses were in operation, he said.
The district does not pay Durham for bus routes that do not run and is saving about $100,000 each day of the strike, district officials said at a school board meeting Tuesday.
The district annually spends about $20 million on student transportation, with about $3.5 million of that coming from district operations funding and the rest provided by state transportation subsidies, according to budget documents.
Any savings created by the strike can go back into the district’s account up to that $3.5 million local funding mark, officials told the school board last month. Unspent state transportation money can be saved and used for bus service next year, they said.
Mat-Su school bus workers last walked off the job when Durham and the union failed to reach an initial contract agreement or address worker concerns — including bus safety — after five months of negotiations.
That strike, which lasted about six weeks, followed months of reduced bus service caused by a driver shortage and led to an increase in absenteeism as parents and guardians struggled to transport students to school.
