The bus company that failed to do proper criminal-background checks on its drivers, leading to a one-day shutdown of Columbus Public Schools in January, is laying off the 60 or so workers who drove routes for the district.

"First Student will not be providing student-transportation services to the Columbus Public Schools for the upcoming school year," the company said in a letter to local employees.

In addition, the State Highway Patrol started an administrative review of the company that could lead to First Student's license to operate school buses in Ohio being revoked, said spokesman Lt. Tony Bradshaw.

The state, in conjunction with the Columbus city prosecutor's office, has decided against pursuing criminal sanctions against First Student, Bradshaw said.

In its letter to its employees, First Student references a recent 6-1 vote by the Columbus Board of Education to essentially end its contract. The vote keeps the district from doing more than $25,000 in business with the company.

Columbus school board member W. Carlton Weddington said the district is taking moves to ensure the safety of its students, and it's wrong for First Student to blame the district for its workers losing their jobs.

"For First Student to say they are closing down their operations as a result of what we did is unfortunate," Weddington said. "First Student had bigger issues than just not receiving a contract from Columbus Public Schools. They had some management issues that they needed to deal with, and they had personnel issues that they needed to deal with."

The board will approve new contracts with several private bus vendors on Tuesday. Among them is Laidlaw, which is in the process of merging nationally with First Student. That won't keep the district from working with Laidlaw, district officials said.

Laidlaw spokeswoman Tiffini Bloniarz couldn't say yesterday how the merger would affect Laidlaw's Columbus operation.

First Student was one of four bus companies that helped transport children who live in the district this past school year. The district's own drivers handle most routes, but the district uses the four vendors to help cover some of the routes to charter and private schools.

First Student began laying off employees last week. All of its employees who serve Columbus Public are to be laid off by the end of this month, when its contract with the district expires, the letter said.

No one at First Student's Cincinnati offices would comment.

Columbus Superintendent Gene Harris closed schools on Jan. 25 after learning that First Student had not conducted state-mandated criminal-background checks on its drivers. The company grounded its fleet until those checks were done.

Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann said records showed the company hadn't done the checks on any of its Ohio drivers since August 2004. The checks are meant to ensure that felons aren't driving school buses.

"It's an intolerable situation," Dann said at the time. "This should never have happened. It should never happen again."

bbush@dispatch.com