The Mercer County School District could outsource its school bus service.
The School Board will vote on the measure in a special meeting Thursday night. The meeting could have a big effect on the transportation budget for the school district in the upcoming years.
As previously reported, the Mercer County Transportation Education Association held an event Sunday in Joy, Illinois. The MCTEA is the union group in the community that drives some of the district's buses. District workers believe they could save about $100,000 in the first year if they outsourced its buses.
"The parents of this district and the tax payers of this district need to be informed about what the school board is deciding to do," MCTEA President Darla Dixon said Sunday. "The bus drivers live in this community. They work in this community. They haul this community's children."
The drivers are worried they may lose their jobs if an outside company comes in, but a school board member told us Sunday that the drivers could all keep their jobs. The board will vote on a decision Thursday. That meeting starts at 7 at the Mercer County Intermediate School in Aledo.