Despite implementing multiple measures to increase efficiency and decrease costs, the Colton Unified School District located about 50 miles east of Los Angeles has joined the growing list of systems forced to evaluate if school busing can continue.
The district is staring down a $14 million budget deficit for the 2012-2013 school year, and three proposals have been developed to cut or reduce transportation service as a result. Colton Unified spokeswoman Katie Orloff said the school board voted last night to table the discussion and directed the district to continue meting with classified union reps on identifying additional cost cutting measures before a vote, likely by the end of the calendar year.
Transportation Director Rick Feinstein said the school board supports transportation, which is why they are so far out in front of the issue.
“They don’t want to cut it, but we’ve just gotten to the point (of saying), ‘Where else do we go?’ They’re having to make decision between programs in the classroom or auxiliary services,” he said.
Several school bus drivers and other transportation employees attended the board meeting to voice their frustration over the prospect of losing their jobs and seeing some 7,000 students potentially put in harm’s way if routes cease starting next August. The district employs 57 bus drivers to service 57 routes, which result in 400 daily runs a day. The districts has a fleet of 70 buses, including spares.
One of the proposals being considered would eliminate all busing except for federally mandated special education and homeless programs, while another would cut busing except for hazardous areas not designed for pedestrian, for example where students must cross bridges without sidewalks. A third proposal would lengthen walking distances from home to school by a half mile for elementary and middle school students and by 1 mile for high school students. Currently, kindergarten through sixth graders are ineligible for busing if they live within a mile of school. The distance increases to 1.5 miles for middle school and 2 miles for high school.
Orloff said some summer school programs have already been cut and many open job positions have not been filled to address the budget shortfall.
Feinstein said the department is already running efficiently with computerized school bus routes that dictate the district’s bell schedules. In some cases, school buses are running as early as 4 a.m. The real issue, he added, is that the state budget is built “on a fantasy.” He explained that if the state doesn’t receive anticipated revenue by the middle of the year, state apportionment is initiated.
“Guess what? The trigger cuts are going to hit transportation to the tune of 50 percent of what the state is giving us,” said Feinstein. “They’re virtually pulling the rug out from under school districts in the middle of the year, and we’re having a hard time trying to figure out what to do about all of that.”
