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transportation.” NSD outsources school bus service,
running 50 buses daily for the vast majority of its students: roughly 5,000 out of 5,400, according to contractor All-Star Transportation. Robinson said this is a necessity because the town has no sidewalks, just “country roads.” Newtown has a relatively small number of students with special needs, 10 percent, and even fewer Title I students. Robinson hopes to avoid staff reductions for 2013-2014, but noted that she isn’t optimistic. “Realistically, after five years of close
to zero budget increases, we have no choice but to lose staff. We have no other places to cut,” she said. Superintendent Dean Koppelman
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of Valley City #2 (N.D.) School District understands all too well that federal cuts hit smaller districts especially hard. He said he expects a 5- to 10-percent cut in federal funding for the programs that benefit at-risk students who comprise 33 percent
(Title I) and 12 percent (special needs) of his total 1,200 population. “I think it’s making most school officials pretty nervous,” he said. “With special-ed funding, we really hope to see some increases, but we’re not hearing the best news there at the federal level. It’s getting tougher to manage our programs,” said Koppelman, who is president-elect of the state superintendents association. “Transportation can be costly,” he
continued. “Te reimbursement we re- ceive, like most schools, for transport- ing regular- and special-ed students isn’t anywhere close to the actual cost.” Mary Ann Hardebeck, superin- tendent of Eau Claire (Wis.) Area School District, is also projecting a
WEB EXCLUSIVE
Read about the automatic 5-percent Head Start spending cuts and how agencies plan to bridge the gap at
www.stnonline.com/home/web-exclusive.
5- to 10-percent cut in federal monies for a growing number of special needs students and those who qualify for free and reduced lunch. Her district experienced a 2-percent growth rate last year and currently serves some 10,000 students. “We’re in the process of planning
next year’s budget and looking at the state funding, federal funding and local funding,” said Hardebeck. “A lot of our federal funding comes through our Title I program, just over 40 percent. We have a number of schools that qualify for Title I, and that’s where we are expecting the biggest impact … “We’re concerned — I think every- one’s concerned.”
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16 School Transportation News April 2013
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