SOUTH KINGSTOWN — After a bumpy year of bus rides to the district’s public schools, the School Committee last night opted to award the transportation contract to another company, First Student Inc.

The 6-0 vote came at the recommendation of Supt. Robert Hicks. Though First Student was not the low bidder, Hicks said the company has a history of providing good service and builds on a strong base of drivers across the state.

“We’re looking forward to a positive start,” Hicks said, adding “There is an added cost to choosing to change.”

The committee awarded First Student a three-year contract, with a two-year extension at the district’s discretion. The deal does not include fuel adjustments across its life and amounts to $3.27 million in its first year. “Fuel is at the contractor’s risk,” Hicks said.

The selection eliminates the question of whether the district will take legal action against the current bus contractor, DATTCO, to hold it to a two-year extension — despite persistent complaints about students’ being late for school due to a driver shortage.

The prospect of litigation and DATTCO’s difficulty finding drivers factored into the decision to choose First Student over DATTCO, Hicks said.

First Student, which officials estimate commands 80 percent of the state’s school busing market, is not new to South Kingstown. The company held the district’s transportation contract for a decade before it was awarded to DATTCO in 2002.

DATTCO held onto the contract in 2005, but not without controversy. First Student filed suit that spring, seeking to force the district to consider its bid and restart the bidding process after the School Department refused to open the company’s bid because its representatives did not attend a mandatory pre-bid conference.

A judge ordered the district to open First Student’s bid, but refused to restart the bidding process. The School Committee awarded DATTCO a three-year deal with a two-year extension, praising the company and noting that its bid came in lower tha First Student’s.

But DATTCO informed the district last December that it could not follow through with the extension because the contract did not account for diesel fuel prices jumping 200 percent, according to Cliff Gibson, chief operating officer at DATTCO. It did not include fuel adjustments.

Gibson did not return a phone call yesterday.

The district had taken the position that DATTCO was obligated to fulfill the remaining two years and that the choice to extend the current contract, or not, rested with the schools.

The district, however, accepted new bids for the busing contract last month. DATTCO and First Student Inc. submitted bids for three-year deals that could be extended two more years

DATTCO bid $3 million for 2008-09, $3.3 million in the next year and $3.7 million the year after, according to district business manager John Ritchotte. The total cost over the full five years, if the district chose to renew after three years, would have been $18 million.

First Student proposed $17.8 million over five years. It would charge $3.3 million in the first year and $3.5 million and $3.6 million in the next two years, Ritchotte has said. The district and First Student have pared about $63,000 off the first-year figure, Hicks said last night.

The district has budgeted transportation costs for the 2008-09 fiscal year at $2.7 million, about $537,000 shy of First Student’s. Hicks did not say last night how that shortfall would be addressed.

The First Student contract was more expensive than the School Committee wanted, but its hand was forced by the desire to enhance bus service, Committeeman Richard Angeli said following the vote.

The contract DATTCO reached with its drivers union last week included language that specified that its terms would stand regardless of which company the district chose, said Michael Sheehan, a Teamsters Local 251 member who attended last night’s meeting.

kmulvane@projo.com