The years-long debate about how to address Wareham Public Schools' aging bus fleet may soon be over after an hour-long conversation on Wednesday led the Board of Selectmen and the School Committee to a consensus: a committee will form to come up with a concrete solution.

All parties agreed that the committee would be an "action committee," charged with studying, among other issues, the costs associated with the school district continuing to run its own fleet of buses, how much it would cost to outsource the operation to a private vendor, and how to purchase or lease vehicles if the district stays in the busing business.

The committee will consist of Town Administrator Mark Andrews, School Superintendent Dr. Barry Rabinovitch, a member of the Board of Selectmen, a member of the School Committee, and a member of the Capital Planning Committee. All are voting members.

Both boards also agreed that a member of the Finance Committee should also be involved, but did not officially add a FinCom member to the new committee's roster.

The meetings will be public, minutes will be taken, and officials said they'd ask Wareham Community Television to record the meetings for air on its cable channels.

All agreed that a temporary solution -- whether it be buying or leasing a certain number of buses while the study is being conducted -- should occur.

"Let's go with something [a purchase or lease of buses] now, do the study, come back with the study, and then we can make another decision" on how to proceed, said Selectmen Chair Walter Cruz.

The decision is the latest in an ongoing, years-long saga concerning the school district's fleet. Recent conversations about the formation of a committee to study the matter led to the Board of Selectmen and School Committee separately disagreeing on the make-up of the committee before finally deciding to meet in the same room to come up with a plan.

"I'm sick of the debate," School Committee member Cliff Sylvia said Wednesday. "It's become a political debate that really has no foundation as far as I'm concerned."

The state of the school bus fleet became a hot topic in early 2010 when resident -- now Selectman -- Ellen Begley requested safety records after she read media reports that said the school buses were in a state of disrepair.

School officials have maintained that no children have been put at risk because of mechanical problems with the buses.

Begley led the conversation Wednesday that ended with the agreement to form the committee.

"I think asking for hundreds of thousands of dollars [to purchase or lease buses] without [Town Meeting] voters feeling fully informed is unfair," said Begley, expressing that the point of the committee is to discuss and share information while finding a solution to the problem.

Though the Selectmen voted 4-0-0 in favor of the committee (Selectman Michael Schneider was absent) and the School Committee voted unanimously in-favor, the discussion was not without debate.

"A little bit of at least my frustration is that every single time something is proposed, there's a little bit of bickering about what the make-up [of a committee] is instead of what the end result is going to be," said School Committee member Rhonda Veugen. "We need buses yesterday."

Veugen's colleague Kenneth Fontes agreed.

"The fleet is failing, but let's do another study," Fontes said. "Public safety for our children has been the hot topic ... yet let's keep doing more studies. When is it going to stop?"

Fontes reiterated: "[The buses] need to be replaced yesterday."

Late last year, the town and the School Department put out separate and different requests of busing proposals for an outsourced operation.

The School Department received four bids, all higher than current costs. The town's request garnered no bids.

Since then, the topic has been frequently discussed but never resolved.

A plan to lease seven school buses was on tap for Town Meeting in October, with all parties agreeing that those buses were meant to hold the Transportation Department over until a permanent solution for the bus fleet could be determined.

The School Department sought and received bids for the leases of seven school buses in preparation for Town Meeting in October. But before voters could weigh in, Town Administrator Mark Andrews requested that all leases be taken off of the Town Meeting agenda because the leases could not immediately be financed.

It is unclear when or where the new committee will meet. We will provide information in future issues of Wareham Week and on WarehamVillageSoup.com as it becomes available.