For several months, the Rutherford County Board of Education has looked into buying surveillance cameras for all its contracted buses after criminal incidents over the past year.

The board will vote on awarding the contract to Angeltrax for the overall lowest bid. Angeltrax bid $1,859.26 per bus for a three-camera system, including Global Positioning System and installation.

Should the contract be approved the company will begin installing the cameras between Jan. 28 and Feb. 14.

The board will also begin making initial plans to renew a four-year contract with all bus drivers for the county.

“A new contract will have to be put in place before next school year because this is the fourth year of the current contract,” RCS spokesman James Evans said. “The director is asking the Board for any input as the staff prepares a draft of a new contract that will be considered by the board later this year.”

Evans explained the driver contract covers the entire relationship between the school system and the contractor, including seat rates and mileage fees.

In last year’s school budget, drivers received an increase in the fuel price adjustment paid and a 5 percent increase for seat pay, meaning the drivers receive more per student transported to and from school.

Rezoning Riverdale

The board will also hold a special meeting Wednesday night to vote on moving students from overcrowded Riverdale High School to Blackman High School.

The proposed rezoning would mostly affect students in the Cason Lane area or students I-24 to Broad Street from Middle Tennessee Boulevard to Old Fort Parkway.

The board heard proposals in December that would shift students from increasingly overcrowded Riverdale High to Blackman High.

The board showed no preference between the proposals, but did discuss the impact on Blackman in coming years, fearing it would just trade overcrowding at Riverdale for overcrowding at Blackman.

Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com.