North Reading Schools Award Three-Year, $3.34 Million Bus Contract to Incumbent Vendor

NORTH READING — February 9, 2026 — North Reading School Committee unanimously awards three-year school bus contract to incumbent vendor. The committee voted 5-0 Monday to renew its contract with North Suburban Transportation for three years beginning July 1, 2026, at an estimated total cost of $3,344,275 — a result that surprised officials who had budgeted for an 8 to 10 percent price increase, as the vendor held base-year rates flat or reduced them in several areas. Director of Business and Finance Michael Connelly credited a structural shift from an hourly minimum-charge model to a flat per-trip rate for athletic and extracurricular buses, projecting annual athletic transportation costs dropping to roughly $85,500 from a trajectory closer to the contract's year-five optional figure. The district's regular-education per-bus rate of approximately $400 to $440 sits about $50 below the regional average. The committee also approved a revised second reading of Policy IHF, updating graduation requirements language to reflect new semester-length courses, and members flagged the need to rework the policy requiring two readings before any adoption, citing state-imposed submission deadlines that make the current process difficult to meet.