The Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority board of trustees has approved its side of the deal with Toledo Public Schools to transport students for the next two school years.

The transit trustees today approved the terms of a $3,913,380 contract with the school district to provide 54,000 bus-hours of service during the upcoming 180-day school year, plus undisclosed additional fees for storage and maintenance of TPS yellow buses. TARTA and school officials plan to release further information at a news conference scheduled for 1 p.m.

James Gee, the transit authority’s general manager, said payment for similar service during the 2016-17 school year is subject to negotiation, but the terms approved today provide for the school district to pay TARTA a $150,000 penalty if the service contract for that year falls below $1 million.

TARTA has obtained 44 second-hand buses from transit authorities across Ohio, has hired additional drivers and mechanics, and has promoted existing part-time drivers to full-time to beef up its operating capacity for the school-related service, Mr. Gee and Tom Metzger, TARTA’s transportation superintendent, told the board.

Along with approving the TPS contract, the transit trustees approved a transfer of three buses from the Akron Metro Regional Transit Authority; $83,308 in two contracts to paint and decal 34 buses previously obtained from the Cleveland and Columbus transit agencies, and about $63,000 to install destination signs in the 13 buses that came from Cleveland.

The Cleveland Regional Transit Authority salvaged the destination signs from its surplus buses when it stored them, Mr. Gee explained. The signs TARTA will install could also be removed and installed in other buses when the Cleveland buses are retired, he said.

“They were kind of cheap taking them out, but they gave us a great price,” the transit manager said.

Federal Transit Administration rules require that buses no longer needed for one transit agency’s operations, but still operational and with “equity” remaining from federal funds used to pay for them, be made available to other transit agencies.

Besides the 21 from Columbus, 13 from Cleveland, and three from Akron, TARTA obtained seven surplus buses from the Butler County Regional Transit Authority, which operates in and around Hamilton, Middletown, and Oxford, Ohio.

TARTA has provided surplus buses to other agencies in the past. It significantly reduced its fleet and allowed its manpower to shrink by attrition after the Toledo Public Schools, during a budget crunch, eliminated most student transportation after the 2009-10 school year.

TPS promised that if a levy voters approved in November passed, it would restore bus service. Students in elementary schools will be transported in yellow TPS buses, but high-school students, as before, will be given passes to ride TARTA service.

The transit authority’s 300 daily bus-hours of TPS service will be in the form of special routes geared toward taking students to and from school. By law, however, anyone may board those buses if they pay the appropriate fare.

Mr. Gee also showed the transit trustees a one-minute video explaining to students two key differences between yellow-bus service and riding TARTA to school. The video, using animation, warns students that TARTA buses do not have the red flashing lights requiring other motorists to stop when the buses stop to pick up or drop off passengers, nor do TARTA drivers wait at bus stops for exiting riders to walk in front of the bus to cross the street.

Classes start in Toledo Public Schools on Aug. 25, but Mr. Gee noted some of the refurbished buses need to be ready by Wednesday, when St. Ursula Academy opens for the new school year.

First Published August 6, 2015, 4:24 p.m.