Harrisburg, Pa. - A Dauphin County judge has delivered a temporary victory to bus drivers in the Central Dauphin School District.

Judge Richard Lewis granted the Central Dauphin Bus Drivers' Association an injunction that has, for now, prevented the district from outsourcing its transportation services as of Monday. There will be further arguments in Dauphin County Court on Tuesday.

With nearly 12,000 students, Central Dauphin is the largest school district in the area. Getting kids to and from school and activities requires 131 drivers and costs more than $7 million a year; a cost the school board hoped to reduce by outsourcing busing to an Illinois company, but the board signed a deal with Durham School Services even though the contract with current drivers doesn't expire until June 30, 2011.

Although the new company is offering the same wages, drivers say their health benefits will take a hit. "The main concern we have is Durham provides substantially less health benefits. The average age of our drivers is 60 years old and most of our employees have pre-existing health conditions that are not going to be covered when Durham comes in," Eric Epstein, business manager of the bus drivers' association said.

Bus driver Roxann Ebersole says drivers were pressured to sign the new deal. "We were told that if we didn't sign it we wouldn't have a job Monday morning," she said.

Epstein insists that any savings the district makes by switching bus providers will be eaten up in legal fees and questions why a deal was done without public input. "You shouldn't do business behind closed doors, especially when the bill goes to the taxpayer and it's a 32-and-a-half-million dollar bill," he said.

The school board has already transferred titles on the busses and has received a $2 million check for them, which makes for a murky legal situation.

abc27 News tried repeatedly for a response from Central Dauphin solicitor James Ellison, but our phone calls were not returned.

 Email To Friend