COVER STORY Shining Light
Nation’s 2nd Largest School District Illuminates the Need to Keep School Buses Rolling in Los Angeles
As the largest school district in California and the second-largest in the nation, Los Angeles Unified is a microcosm of the budget woes that continue to strangle the student transportation community.
By Ryan Gray easoned
ten lag a good year to 18 months behind private enterprise, at least historically. Enrique (Rick) Boull’t, Donald Wilkes
S
and the rest of the district hope the light at the end of this tunnel comes much sooner than that, a big challenge for a state that has fallen to 48th in the nation in public education. Boull’t, chief operating officer, and
Wilkes, the interim director of transporta- tion, have a combined 62 years with the district that spans 800 school sites over 700 square miles and provides transpor- tation to approximately 52,000 students. More than 30,000 of those are mandated by a 1981 desegregation order, Crawford v. LAUSD, to be transported to magnet schools scattered throughout the city lim- its. Another 14,000 students with special needs are transported based on their IEPs, with the balance offered busing based on
32 School Transportation News Magazine April 2012
industry
profession-
als have been waiting with bated breath for the economy to recover, and it is showing signs, but they also know that municipalities of-
school capacity, special permits or be- cause of distance and walking hazards. While the district does not provide
regular home-to-school transportation as many districts across the country operate, the volume of buses and students who roll down Los Angeles freeways and streets each weekday is mind boggling. But so is the $80 million transportation hole the district is staring down for the upcoming 2012-2013 school year, even after LAUSD and hundreds of other school districts across the state narrowly avoided losing their remaining transportation funds for the rest of the current school year. Te state legislature did pass an emer-
gency bill that was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown to reinstate $248 million in student transportation aid that was originally cut at the beginning of the year when state rev- enues fell short of the $2 billion mark. “I knew (Senate Bill 81) would get us
through this part of the year, but next year is a big concern,” said Wilkes during an unusually warm, sunny day in early February at LAUSD’s downtown trans-
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