20-10-125. Bid letting for contract bus -- payments under transportation contract. (1) Before any contract with a private party for the provision of school bus transportation is awarded, the trustees shall:

(a) secure bids by publishing during a period of 21 days at least three calls for bids in a newspaper of the county that will give notice to the largest number of people of the district or in the official newspaper of the county; the trustees shall let the contract to the lowest responsible bidder, and the trustees shall have the right to reject any and all bids; or

(b) negotiate a new contract with the current school bus contractor, provided the negotiated contract costs do not exceed by more than 12% per year the basic costs of the previous year's contract. Such a negotiated contract can be entered into only at a public meeting of the trustees at which meeting the patrons of the district may appear and be heard. Notice of the meeting must have been published in a newspaper of wide circulation within the district at least 1 week prior to the meeting.

(2) The provisions of this section for awarding a contract for school bus transportation shall be subject to the provisions of 20-9-204.

(3) The trustees shall not expend any moneys of the district for school bus transportation by a private party or for individual transportation unless:

(a) a contract for such transportation services has been completed; and

(b) such contracted services for school bus transportation by a private party have been actually furnished except that the failure to perform may be excused by the trustees for reasons not under the control of the contractor; or

(c) such contracted services for individual transportation have been actually furnished as confirmed by the actual attendance of school by the eligible transportees and recorded on the school attendance records or, in the case of a supervised correspondence course or supervised home study, as confirmed by the trustees; except that the contracted services furnished one way on any school day shall be reimbursed at one-half the daily contract amount.