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New buses not here yet, insurance not seen
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Posted on Mar 26 2005
The Public School System has assured schoolchildren on Saipan of new buses and vans for their everyday commute to school but they would have to wait until September this year before that happens.
The federally funded acquisition of three 66-capacity buses and 14 10-capacity passenger vans is still up for contract signing and, right now, the contracts have yet to be signed, said education associate commissioner David M. Borja.
He said the papers are going through normal routing procedures but it is hoped that the delivery of the new vehicles would be in August and September. “Once the contract is signed, we have 180 days to get it. We hope to get it by August or September.”
Borja declined to disclose the price of the buses and vans. Earlier, he said the price is confidential until the contracts are finally signed. He conceded, though, that this expenditure is going to be expensive.
“For one bus you can probably build a house on Saipan, a three-bedroom house,” he said.
He said the price of one special education van could reach almost $60,000. This does not include the insurance for the vehicles.
Borja also clarified earlier reports about the insurance of the buses and children, saying he was misunderstood when he first discussed the matter.
He said there is no “outside” insurance for the school buses because PSS is “self-insured.”
“It’s the truth,” he said. “Can we do anything about it? Sure. If we have $100,000 every year to buy insurance, sure we can do it.”
But he said that, if one bus is insured for $10,000, the school system could already buy a pickup truck using that amount.
He said there is no action being taken on this matter since it is up to the Finance Department to provide them insurance if they want the buses and vans to be insured.
