2010-2011
How has your budgetary outlook affected your school bus
purchases this year? Increased purchases Decreased purchases Extend school bus life No purchases Do not know
10.5% 27.3% 21.5% 41.8% 12.1%
an increase in funding next year, with almost 55 percent of the remainder anticipating a budget cut of some kind. “We are only addressing the safety concerns we must to
assure meeting safety requirements,” said a transportation director from central South Carolina. Some are having to make even deeper cuts this year and next. “We have had to cut money out of transportation, which
means that equipment I want for the buses is being cut as well as new buses,” said Joanne K. Woodworth, transporta- tion director for Kennebec Valley (Maine) Consolidated Schools. “We have trimmed the fat and now are trimming some of the muscle.” But all is not grim for the future of school transportation,
as only 1.5 percent of respondents said they were planning to eliminate services, and almost double the number of these survey responses (2.7 percent) indicated that service is expected to increase next year. Te tool for a majority of the school districts that answered STN’s national survey will be consolidation, with 42 percent looking to bus the same number of students but with fewer routes, which is better
How will your 2010-2011 school year budget be affected? Funding will be increased 1 to 5 percent cut 6 to 15 percent cut 16 to 25 percent cut
25 percent or greater cut No change Do not know
4.6% 17.9% 24.3% 8.0% 4.2%
20.2% 20.9%
than some already failed plans. “We expanded walk areas for 2009-2010, and took a lot of criti-
cism from the community,” said a transportation supervisor in southern Michigan. “Ultimately, we re-implemented about half of the area’s transportation. Now we are looking at 2010-2011 and con- solidating high school and middle school stops and doubling the walk to stop distances.” “Elimination” is not a nonexistent term, however. Although services
in general are still in place, school bus stops, routes and even driver po- sitions have been cleaved from more than one departments’ budgeted costs. Going into the 2009-2010 school year, Rick McBride of Pinellas County (Fla.) Schools said he saw his overall budget reduced by $11 million. Tis included eliminating 200 routes, reducing the total num- ber of stops from approximately 18,500 to 8,600 and cutting staff by 25 percent. But this has not stopped the district from incorporating an increase in homeless students, which grew by 25 percent nationwide since last school year. More than half of the schools included in STN’s survey have seen an increase in this type of transportation. “So far, we’ve been able to accommodate the students,” said Kimberly Holcomb, director of transportation for East Stroudsburg
How do you expect your 2010-2011 budget to affect school bus service? Transportation eliminated
1.5%
Transportation decreased Transportation increased Route consolidation
27.9% 2.7%
42.7% Reducing staff
Eligibility/walking distance changed No effect on transportation Other
27.1% 14.1% 32.1% 15.6%
www.stnonline.com 33
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