Berrien Regional Education Service Agency (RESA), Berrien Springs, Mich.
Berrien Regional Education Service Agency (RESA) provides opportunities for educational institutions in Berrien County, Michigan to access high-quality, regionally-delivered support services while realizing cost efficiencies. Its members include public school districts, parochial schools and public school academies. When the agency was weighing the benefits of contracting its special education (SPED) transportation services with that very goal in mind. They were facing state funding reductions and had to achieve significant cost savings. The district’s leadership found that could be accomplished through contracted SPED transportation. To move forward, its member districts and the communities they serve wanted to feel confident RESA’s prospective transportation partner could capably handle the complexity of transporting children enrolled in alternative education programs, including children with special needs and severe behavioral challenges.
Download the case study to see how, with First Student’s scale, their program enhanced its recruiting, training, maintenance, fleet planning and routing needs while saving money and never sacrificing safety for their students.
“Money was a catalyst for us. We found we would save a million dollars a year for five years when we first signed the contract. One of the things we have always prided ourselves on is the safety and care of our students. No matter how much money we saved, if we thought we would have to sacrifice safety, we wouldn’t have done it.”
Jim Palm, Assistant Superintendent for Administrative Services