As some Dallas Independent School District trustees campaign to close school bus provider Dallas County Schools in Tuesday's referendum, some suburban districts want to see DCS survive.
The referendum was set by state lawmakers after NBC 5 Investigates uncovered serious safety and financial problems at DCS over the past year.
About 115 DCS buses serve 38 schools in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District each day.
"We are 100 percent behind Dallas County Schools," said CFB ISD Board President John Matthews. "They have been super to us, on time. They've done everything we've asked them to do."
The former DCS board president and superintendent have both been replaced, and Matthews said he thinks new managers will go overboard to make people happy.
He said CFB ISD is happy with the DCS drivers who are serving students from a Carrollton location.
"We're a family. We don't want to lose anybody," Matthews said.
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Matthews said CFB ISD compared alternatives and found DCS to be $2.4 million cheaper each year.
DCS benefits from a 1 cent per $100 value property tax that helps the agency outbid private companies.
The DeSoto Independent School District uses 43 DCS buses each day. DeSoto is talking with the neighboring Lancaster and Cedar Hill districts about joint service if voters close DCS.
"Overall, I think we're pretty happy with the service and we want to see it continue because of all the problems that would occur," said DeSoto ISD purchasing director David Scott.
State law setting up the referendum includes a transition process. DCS bus service would continue through this school year. The agency's buses would be divided among the districts it serves. Representatives for each district would be appointed to a transition committee to oversee the wind down.
But Scott said many details of the transition remain unclear. DCS operates 1,900 buses but owns only about 500 of them. The rest are leased. Districts may have to take over leases. Mechanics and drivers would have to be hired. Routing software would have to be acquired. Districts could decide to operate their own bus service and rehire some DCS employee or hire a contractor to replace DCS.
"The problems are absolutely phenomenal as far as moving forward," Scott said.
The Lancaster Independent School District already operates its own bus service and has for years, even though Lancaster property owners still pay taxes to DCS. If DCS closes, property taxes would still be collected for some time into the future to repay DCS debts.
