ARE WE YET?
THERE
By Stephane Babcock Only about 14 percent of the respon-
dents to an STN survey conducted in February said that they hold positions at “large” school districts comprised of more than 25,000 students. But that doesn’t mean the remaining 86 per- cent labeled as “small” and “medium” districts don’t share the same issues when dealing with this year’s budget issues and the similar landscape of the 2010-2011 fiscal year that for most be- gins on July 1. Even with the economy looking slightly more positive than it did at the
beginning of the current school year, many school districts are still looking at slim budgets and are making tough de- cisions, including how they will spend their funding. Of the 263 respondents that completed the STN survey, almost 42 percent said they did not make any school bus purchases, with another 27 percent saying they cut down on the number of total purchases during the current school year. And the outlook for next year
isn’t much better. One hundred and fourteen (nearly 46 percent) of the
32 School Transportation News Magazine April 2010
While the economy appears to be leveling off, school districts are preparing for more tough decisions with their 2010- 2011 budgets
schools surveyed will once again hold off on buying school buses with their 2010-2011 budgets, and another 73 school districts (29 percent) will be cutting down on the amount of buses they purchase. “We were already running negative
in reserves, and the state came in this fall and took $800,000 away from this year’s budget,” said Deb Kahler, trans- portation director for Winterset (Iowa) Community Schools. Less than 5 percent of the respon- dents surveyed said they are expecting
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