EAST PROVIDENCE — They say they’re loyal employees with nearly 300 years of combined service to the East Providence school system.

Yet the district is letting its 28 bus assistants go to privatize its transportation service with First Student Inc., which has its corporate headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio. The late June decision — that only School Committee chairwoman Mildred Morris voted against — was made mainly because the fiscally struggling district would save $346,416 by the move.

First Student’s contract with the district was effective July 1, but the bus-assistant portion of the pact will begin after the district’s contract with the East Providence Teachers Assistants’ union expires Oct. 31. On Tuesday night, the bus assistants and their supporters asked the committee to reconsider.

“Please do not sell out the safety of your children,” said Nancy Mello, a 20-year bus assistant. “When you privatize, you jeopardize.”

Another emphasized that they all work with the district’s students with special needs. They solve problems, calm upset children, communicate with parents and look out for medical issues that may arise on the trips. They said these students, the most delicate in the district, also need consistency. None of the bus assistants believe First Student can guarantee regularity and “quality care.”

Delores Conway, a Barrington resident and local bus assistant, said some of her riders cried and refused to go on the bus when she is sick and can’t work. She also said she once calmed a bus load of students when their 4-year-old classmate suffered a seizure.

She said, “My job is not just getting on and off the bus.”

The union’s president, Maureen Buckett, a city resident, said she believes the department’s potential savings figure is incorrect.

“The union members would like to know how the School Committee justifies the claim of a $300,000 savings to sell out their employees to First Student. We have accurate calculations that bring the cost of privatizing the special-education bus assistants to $475,335 minimally for the 2008-09 school year,” Buckett said. “The cost to keep the buses in house including salaries, pension payments, health care and longevity is $541,131. That is a difference of $65,796 not $300,000!”

Human Resources director Lonnie Barham said Buckett is incorrect. He said the bus assistants cost the city more than $1 million when benefits and other items, such as the cost to replace them during vacations, are included. He said the salaries alone for the 28 assistants equal $595,280.

First Student’s contract is for about $721,000, which is a difference of nearly $350,000.

When First Student’s transportation bid was discussed in June, former interim Finance Director William Capron said the change would allow the district to get all new buses within a year of the contract. He said the city’s buses are “old” and “need a lot of work.” The cost to keep them and retrofit them would be significant, former Supt. Jacqueline Forbes also said.

Another benefit heavily discussed was that the district would no longer have to provide fuel for the buses. District officials estimate, based on past experience, fuel costs would be $462,000 this school year. First Student’s package deal had a much smaller charge for fuel.

Additionally, First Student representatives in June said they would hire the city’s current bus assistants Nov. 1. Barham reiterated that agreement Tuesday night.

“First we truly appreciate [your services], but we are in dire straits financially and that was the only reason,” he said to the many assistants and their friends and family in the audience. To the school board, he said, “First Student has guaranteed they would take them and train them.”

The assistants shouted, “That’s not true at all,” and “You’re wrong.”

Raymond Linneman, the district’s transportation supervisor who is working closest with First Student, said the company has only agreed to “accept the applications” from the current bus assistants. He said they would have to meet the company’s guidelines and take a 28-hour training course. Although Linneman did not elaborate on the course, the assistants said it includes an agility test.

The assistants also said the job with First Student doesn’t include benefits or the pensions they currently have. In addition, they said the company pays less.

Bus assistant and city resident Debbie Branco broke down in tears. She said she isn’t sure how she would make ends meet with this change. Earlier, she said the committee should have asked the union to renegotiate before making the deal with First Student. She said the district could have received a savings that way as well, but the board didn’t even try to talk to the union.

Said Branco, “I just find it insulting.”

Morris asked the other members to rescind their votes, which caused much of the audience to erupt in applause. Yet new school lawyer Daniel K. Kinder said the issue was only on the agenda to discuss and a vote could not be taken that night.

The chairwoman plans to put the matter on the agenda for the committee’s next meeting Sept. 9 at 7 p.m. in City Hall.

apina@projo.com