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Logan Bus Company takes over school district transportation after longtime carrier files for bankruptcy
When Oceanside students returned from holiday recess on Monday, a new bus company took them to and from school.
The change was necessitated after the district’s longtime carrier, the Atlantic Express Transportation Corp., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.
The bankruptcy court auctioned off Atlantic’s assets and school district contracts, and in early December it awarded the contracts for four districts — Oceanside, Bellmore-Merrick, East Meadow and Uniondale — to the Logan Bus Company, which is headquartered in New York City.
One of Logan’s subsidiaries, the Guardian Bus Company, will take over East Meadow’s routes, and will operate out of a newly purchased bus depot at 3678 Oceanside Road in Oceanside.
Corey Miurhead, a spokesman for Logan, told the Herald that the company will retain more than 80 percent of Atlantic Express’s employees, and that it aims to keep the same drivers and dispatchers on each route. “That’s the promise we’ve made,” Miurhead said. “We’re having a great retention right now with getting the same people.”
In a letter to parents dated Dec. 20, Oceanside Superintendent Phyllis Harrington assured parents that little would change due to the turnover from Atlantic Express to Logan.
“School personnel have been working very closely wth representatives from Logan to make the transition as smooth as possible,” she wrote. “Logan has assured us that it will do everything possible to maintain the same bus drivers and other support personnel that we have come to know and rely on. All routes will remain exactly the same, as well as pick-up and drop-off times. We have been told that the logo on the side of the buses will have from ‘Atlantic Express’ to ‘Guardian,’ so please look for that as your child boards the bus.”
“This was an unexpected quick turn of events,” Harrington added. “I am confident that we have made our expectations clear to the management within Logan Bus Company and they are well aware that safety is our first priority.”
She urged anybody with problems or concerns to call the district’s transportation, Janet Meltzer, at (516) 678-1211.
