Manhattan District 114 Rejects Bus Bids, Retains Lincoln-Way with Six-Month Trial

Manhattan School District 114 Board of Education Meeting | April 29, 2026

Article Summary: The Manhattan School District 114 Board of Education reached a consensus to reject two outside transportation bids and maintain its current bussing intergovernmental agreement with Lincoln-Way, opting instead for a six-month trial period to monitor service improvements. The decision followed a detailed financial and operational analysis revealing that the alternative bids would significantly increase district costs while failing to guarantee better route efficiency.

Transportation Bid Key Points:

• Yellow School Bus submitted a bid nearly $1 million higher than current costs, requiring eight additional buses.

• First Student’s bid was estimated at $170,000 to $200,000 over current expenses but lacked committed route details.

• The district pays $362.50 daily for athletic/band shuttles and $93.75 per hour for individual activities.

• The Board will re-evaluate the Lincoln-Way transportation partnership in December or January.

The Manhattan School District 114 Board of Education on Tuesday, April 29, 2026, engaged in an extensive debate over the future of the district’s busing services, ultimately deciding to hold the line with its current provider, Lincoln-Way, rather than accepting higher-priced bids from private contractors.

Following ongoing community complaints regarding late buses and communication issues over the past two years, the district issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) on March 2. Bids were opened on April 7, yielding two proposals from Yellow School Bus and First Student.

According to district transportation administrators, Yellow School Bus submitted a bid that came in nearly $1 million higher than the district’s current costs. In their proposal, the company attempted to map out Manhattan’s specific routes and concluded they would need to run 12 buses on two of the service tiers and 20 buses on the other two—equating to an eight-bus increase.

First Student’s bid initially appeared closer to the district’s budget, estimating an increase of $170,000 to $200,000 over current Lincoln-Way costs. However, administrators noted significant concerns with the proposal’s lack of detail. First Student utilizes a dedicated routing team and refused to plot out Manhattan’s specific routes or commit to exact bus numbers until the district signed a contract.

“They just felt like, ‘trust us, we’ll figure it out,'” a district administrator explained to the Board. “They are saying, ‘Well, it’s fine, we have more buses, we’ll just charge you for them. We just won’t know until you commit to us.'”

Further complicating the First Student bid was the location of their depot. First Student planned to stage the Manhattan fleet out of Crest Hill, prompting concerns that traffic on Interstate 80 could cause significant delays in reaching the schools by the 2:00 p.m. dismissal window.

Board members weighed the steep financial risks against the community’s frustration with Lincoln-Way. Board Member Brian Anderson broke down the hidden costs inside First Student’s activity rates. First Student estimated a flat daily rate of $362.50 for daily band and athletic shuttles, plus $93.75 per hour per bus for activities and field trips.

“I took the activity at $94 an hour. One basketball game for us is a minimum five hours because they get a half-hour lead time to get to the school. They’re getting paid while we’re having the game,” Anderson said. “Just for a seventh and eighth-grade basketball season, we’re looking at $5,500 added onto that bottom price. I see their bottom line just from the beginning at $100,000 over without any trips. I will vote no if we go First Student. I’ll tell you that right now because I see it as a financial problem.”

Board President John Burke expressed deep frustration with Lincoln-Way’s historical complacency and advocated for adding “Performance Guarantees” (PGs) to any future contracts, which would penalize a company financially if a bus failed to show up or was excessively late.

“I’m coming in a couple years in this, right? So year one we just threw up our hands… last year especially that happened a lot,” Burke said. “I want to see a financial penalty if a bus doesn’t show. I want a financial penalty like a credit or something that helps us. Without a performance guarantee, it just sets complacency.”

Despite these reservations, the Board noted that Lincoln-Way has made strides since hiring a new transportation director. The district recently served as a pilot for Lincoln-Way’s new GPS tracking app, which rolled out to Manhattan parents in January and provides real-time bus locations. Administrators also detailed a plan to shift the school start-time tiers from 40-30-30 minute gaps to consistent 35-minute intervals (35-35-35) to give drivers enough time to travel between the grade centers, specifically to alleviate the heavy load at Anna McDonald School.

Ultimately, the Board reached a consensus to retain Lincoln-Way for the upcoming fall semester without signing a new private bid. The Board directed staff to inform First Student that their bid was rejected due to high pricing, the Crest Hill depot location, and the lack of preliminary route planning. The Board will reassess Lincoln-Way’s performance in December or January before deciding whether to issue a new RFP for the following school year.