Bedford school district officials are looking for a new bus company—and the options could include outsourcing the entire operation.

The details were part of a presentation to the Board of Education Wednesday night by Mark Betz, assistant superintendent of business.

The current five-year contract with Chappaqua Transportation, which handles two-thirds of the district's busing, is ending. The district now handles the other part in-house.

More than 4,600 students are bused to public and private schools and programs. 

"We will be going into the arena," Betz said, explaining that the current contractor said that the fees didn't meet its costs when declining to renew the agreement. 

The district's options include signing a contract with a company that would do all the transportation.

The district owns a fleet of 36 vans which daily do small-group runs and routes, which could include special-education or private-school students.

Betz said he and Transportation Director Tom Turner had already spoken to the transportation department's employees—who include a small office staff, bus monitors, drivers and mechanics—about the outsourcing issue. While the district cannot make hiring its staff a requirement for a new bus company, officials can ask that consideration be given.

School districts choose bus companies using a 100-point scale developed by New York state. The most important factors:

• quality of experience
• accident history
• record of drivers
• fleet inspection reports
• cost

Turner and Betz said they expect bids from several local companies and also some from outside the region who have recently won contracts nearby.

For interested contractors, finding a property on which to store, maintain and fuel a fleet of more than 80 buses and vans in the Bedford/Mount Kisco area can be a challenge, Betz said.

Betz and Turner are developing the request for proposal. Betz promised school trustees who wondered about the comparative costs a full cost-benefit analysis of in-house versus outsourced operations.

"We have a lot of work ahead of us," he said.