LISLE, Ill. — Durham School Services is expanding its operations to Alaska with a new contract to serve Fairbanks North Star Borough School District.

The contract will run for 10 years, beginning August 2021, according to a news release from the school transportation provider. Durham will operate 130 routes and will house its fleet in a new facility. The company will also hire more than 220 team members in Fairbanks.

“I feel there are numerous components of the proposal that will help to provide our students, parents, and staff a high quality transportation service. Our district looks forward to welcoming Durham to the Fairbanks community and to a lasting partnership that will be mutually beneficial to all,” said Andreau DeGraw, the chief operations officer for Fairbanks North Star Borough School District.

The district’s fleet will be equipped with Durham’s partnered technologies: Lytx DriveCam, Seon camera system, and Fogmaker fire suppression technology.

As previously reported in 2016, Durham, as a subsidiary of National Express, began including Fogmaker fire suppression systems in all its new school bus purchases. Additionally, in December 2018, Durham completed installation of video telematics supplier Lytx’s event recorders across its entire fleet of 15,000 buses.

“It will be a privilege to serve the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District and their community. Schools, parents, and students have been relying on our transportation service for more than 100 years, and we look forward to bringing the high-quality service, for which we are known, to Fairbanks," said Gary Waits, CEO of Durham School Services. "We are excited and will be ready to serve them with our best-in-class drivers, safety technologies, and monitoring capabilities.”