Nov 20, 2025 By Garrett Neese 3 min read

A proposed joint transportation agreement between three Greene County schools was ultimately too expensive to make work for now, Jefferson-Morgan School District Superintendent Brandon Robinson said.

The district’s board voted 9-0 Monday to reject proposed bids for the joint contract, which would have covered Jefferson Morgan as well as Central Greene and Carmichaels districts.

The district received back bids from First Student, J-M’s current transportation vendor, as well as Student Transportation of America (STA).

Five-year estimates from both companies starting in 2026-27 came in above the current rates. That in itself could’ve just reflected “the rising cost of everything,” Robinson said.

He went back to First Student to get pricing for a contract extension.

And the joint agreement was higher than that, too.

The cost for a 72-passenger bus is $403.59 under the current agreement. That would go up to $423.86 under an extension with First Student.

Both joint bids came in higher: $461.79 for First Student, and $452.51 not including fuel for STA.

Robinson asked around: Why?

Expenses, for one thing. If First Student had gotten the bid, they would have needed to buy more buses to serve Carmichaels and Central Greene, Robinson said. STA, which currently serves Carmichaels, would have had the same issues with the other two districts.

On top of that is the “mass amount of mileage” a company would take on to serve all three districts, Robinson said.

The operational savings they expected from pooling their savings also didn’t materialize.

“We thought if we didn’t have to have three different bus depots, if we didn’t have to have three separate managers, those things would save on cost,” Robinson said. “But evidently, they did not.”

For now, Jefferson-Morgan plans to pursue a separate contract. The board will discuss in January whether to go out for bids or extend its current contract, Robinson said.

Central Greene’s board voted Tuesday to put out new bids for transportation.

Superintendent Matthew Blair said the board would put the final touches on its request for proposals before putting it out for three weeks.

“Hopefully we have more than two people … not that we would mind having either one of them, but it would be nice to have a couple more hitters in there, maybe, so people sharpen their pencils a little bit,” he said.

The choice of company could eventually lead to a deal. First Student said they’d be willing to come back to the table to discuss shared services in the future if Central Greene went with them. The same would probably be true of STA, Robinson said.

“It’s definitely not a dead deal forever,” Robinson said. “It’s definitely something to continue to look into. It just didn’t work this individual time.”