Bus cuts
5,451: students affected in grades K-8
3,719: students affected at high schools
430: total non-public school students impacted
$1,147: 2009 average cost per pupil for transportation
$70,000 amount saved by eliminating a bus
LIBERTY TWP. — Nearly half of the Lakota Local Schools’ 18,500 students likely will be without busing in January, the Board of Education announced Monday, and parents say this will cause a safety issue for many.
Around 80 residents attended the meeting to hear school leaders present the first cuts to the $167 million budget following the defeat of its proposed 7.9-mill emergency operating levy to raise $21.7 million a year for 10 years.
Starting Jan. 18, pending board approval, Lakota will reduce its transportation services to the state minimum, and also will change start times of some schools, such as the freshman school, to increase efficiency and to allow for high school students who drive to potentially drive their younger siblings to school.
“Transportation is something we have offered beyond state requirements,” Superintendent Mike Taylor said. “We can’t afford it any longer.”
Busing will be cut for grades nine to 12, including private and parochial schools. Students in kindergarten through eighth-grade, who live within a two-mile driving distance from school, will no longer be bused. These changes will save about $800,000 through the end of the school year and $2.8 million next year.
Parents on Monday expressed safety concerns.
“If you live on Hamilton-Mason (Road), there are no sidewalks,” parent Lonnie Tucker said. “As you know, even walking a mile can be a hazardous situation.”
Others questioned why it would save money to bus one child on a street, but leave behind the one that lives next door in an exclusion zone.
Chris Passarge, director of business operations, said there are going to be situations where neighborhoods are divided, but it is necessary for parents to find a way for their children to get to school safely.
“People need to understand we can’t pick and choose who is eligible and who is not. It’s clearly defined by the two-mile driving distance,” he said of state law.
Plans will be released to parents by Nov. 23 for each of the district’s 22 buildings regarding the increased traffic from walkers and from vehicles at drop-off and pick-up zones for students driven to school. Information has been posted on the district’s website www.lakotaonline.com, including a map of exclusion zones.
Several parents pleaded their cases about the hardships bus cuts will cause them and asked if they could donate money they would have paid had the levy passed to ensure their children are bused.
“There are 9,100 kids (affected), and they each have a unique story,” board President Joan Powell said. “This is not something any of us takes lightly.”
By law, she said, residents may not pay for busing. Passarge said there is an exception for certified day care businesses that may be able to work out contracts with the district.
Parent John Trygier said parents should speak up before the board makes a final decision based on what he feels is an outdated financial forecast.
“I think if they came out with a smaller levy request to parents, and they had a pay and benefit reduction with the teachers and administrators where everyone shared in the pain, I think they would have a more balanced, long term plan that all the stakeholders could support,” he said.
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