A row of Durham School Services buses line up to transport students who attend Collierville Schools in Memphis, Tennessee. The contractor is now paid in full but only received 41 percent of its contract money during school shutdown at the end of last school year.


said he was told to cut 5 percent. Out- of-state travel is gone, for example, and more reductions are likely. “Travel, period, is pretty much cut to the bone for professional develop- ment and conferences,” he noted. “You know, there’s not so much extra fat in the budget anyway.” He added that he also cut vehicle lifts


of the year hit a point where overtime is going to become a concern. But we’ve been really blessed because, again, we’re traveling less miles.” He also voiced concern about the increasing oil prices, as they too will significantly impact his numbers. Mann said he usually budgets between $600,000 and $700,000 a school year for diesel but is unsure of what the future will hold. Already, retail diesel prices rose nationally by 39 cents a gallon from Feb. 1 to March 15. School Transportation News sent a survey to readers ahead of last month’s virtual Transportation Director Summit and found that 25 percent of operations said they have between $250,001 and $500,001 budgeted on new or used school buses over the next 12 months. Twenty-three percent of the 180 respondents have $100,001 to $250,000 budgeted. When asked about requests for technology purchases,


44 percent said they have $1,000 to $50,000 budgeted. The respondents noted their greatest purchase needs consist of Type C or D buses, student tracking technol- ogy, COVID-19 related purchases, parent com- munication aps and video security systems, in that order. Mann is currently taking a use it or lose it approach to purchas- ing for this school year, as he anticipates his budget is only going to decrease in the years to come. He recently submitted a draft of his first budget proposal for the 2022 fiscal year and


Spring ISD in Texas has been running a hybrid learning model since the school year start- ed in September. The district is operating buses with one student per seat, with school bus capacities of 15 to 22 students, which adds up to around 10,000 stu- dents transported daily.


42 School Transportation News • APRIL 2021


to save $30,000 and is pulling the trig- ger on equipment purchases while he still has the funding to do so. “I’m look-


ing at my budget now saying, okay, I projected to use X number of dollars in this area for the current fiscal year,” he explained. “I’m going to move some of that money to take care of this project, as it’s kind of a critical thing, but was too big to put in next year’s budget. So, I’m having to rob Peter this year to pay Paul next year.” One of those equipment purchases is new school bus-


es. He said Spring ISD is currently at the end of its bond cycle, and with the current fiscal climate, he doesn’t foresee the district getting a new bond next year. Mann joined the district about a year ago and said he noticed right away that buses for special education children were not at the retention cycle he preferred. “I bought special needs buses this year because I had


the bond, with the anticipation [of not] being able to pur- chase buses next year, unless sometime drastic happens,” Mann explained. “So, we are trying to take care of some of the purchases, the big purchases that we can out of this year’s budget, as long as I have the money.” Another key initiative he added was upgrading the


district’s fuel management system, which will cost him around $80,000. “And I hate to be that way because that’s the exact op-


posite of my personal checking account,” he said. “Just because there’s money in there doesn’t mean we need to spend it. But that’s kind of where we’re at right now because the writing is on the wall.” Meanwhile, Barry Brooks, director of transportation at Minot Public Schools in North Dakota, advised school districts to “not go crazy” with CARES Act spending. His district has been transporting students to in-person classes since Aug. 27. He shared that 900 of the total 7,652 students opted for virtual learning during the first semes- ter. That number fell to 725 by the second semester. The district received $1.5 million through the CARES


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