In March, FBISD announced the need to cut bus routes as well as the need for students to walk greater distances to bus stops in order to reduce the deficit. New Territory is a master-planned community whose kids can already conveniently walk or bike to it's elementary schools and middle school. Now FBISD is changing it's tune. In 2011, middle schoolers from the west half of New Territory could be bused out of the neighborhood (between 5- 9 miles away) to middle school #14 in Pecan Grove. So now, how is increasing busing throughout the district going to reduce the FBISD deficit?
This article was posted on the Ultimate Fort Bend site on March 13, 2010.
Less bus service, more walking in FBISD?
by Zen T.C. Zheng, published March 13, 2010 6:34 am
It seems innovation and creativity is needed now more than ever in the financially distressed Fort Bend school district.
As officials scramble to look for fat to trim to remedy a $21 million budget deficit, they have discovered a 2.2 million potential savings in transportation operations if they cut back on routes, size up the bus load, let kids take longer walks, and get rid of paid transportation services.
District Chief Financial Officer Tracy Hoke said the state's funding for school transportation has remained flat since 1984.
Chief Auxiliary Services Officer Ben Copeland said low school bus ridership, designation of more hazardous routes than necessary, as well as a heavy task to transport students to and from after-school activities are among the costly concerns.
Proposal to eliminate routes
He proposed eliminating 42 of the 331 regular bus routes those that don't include the 86 routes for special education students to save $1.6 million.
The route reduction could be achieved by ending bus service in areas within two miles of schools, which are designated as hazardous but in fact not meeting hazardous criteria. Officials have identified safe walk paths in service areas for about 10 campuses.
Also, increasing average bus load to 50 secondary-level students per run and 60 elementary-level pupils per run also would result in fewer routes needed.
No more after-school activity runs?
In addition, Copeland proposed doing away with busing for general after-school activities, which currently requires 46 runs for 728 high school riders and 46 runs for middle school riders. Those eliminations would yield $622,000 in savings.
However, he recommended continuing bus service for after-school tutorial programs.
More saving could be attained by cutting back on route mileage while letting students walk longer to bus stops.
In Copeland's proposal, the maximum walking distance for secondary students would be increased from 1,000 feet to a half mile, or 2,640 feet, while elementary pupils would walk up to 1,000 feet to a stop, compared to the current limit of 500 feet.
Bell schedules could change
Another idea is to shift bell schedules - stretching the timeframe in which a driver is able to make trips to more campuses during each run.
Under the proposal, elementary schools will start 8:10 a.m. and terminates at 3:10 p.m. while middle schools' day runs from 8:55 a.m. to 3:55 p.m. High schools' schedule would remain unchanged.
Copeland also suggested canceling a paid transportation program service to students who don't qualify for free transportation but pay a $27 monthly fee to ride school buses.
He said the fee isn't enough to cover the cost of service. Doing away with the program would save the district $20,000, he said.
Some school board trustees expressed concerns about the proposed changes during a recent workshop.
Susan Hohnbaum said she is worried about pupils having to walk more.
Kids are riding the bus obviously they need a ride to the school," she said. If they don't, their neighbors will have to take them or their mom and dad have to take them if their schedule allows that."
Trustee Sonal Bhuchar said safety is a concern.
Hoke suggested enhance campus education on safe walking and practice safe walking.
But trustee Marilyn Glover urged parental involvement.
Parents have the same role in teaching safety. Schools can not do everything," she said.
Copeland said more crossing guards would have to be enlisted if his proposal is adopted.
No comments:
Post a Comment