PSD Announces Proposal to Eliminate School Choice Busing or Charge Fees to Provide Consistent Transportation Services for all Choice Education Programs
Poudre School District (PSD) will hold two meetings in November for parents of children currently receiving school choice transportation to share information and discuss transportation options for the future.
Parents of approximately 400 students were sent letters inviting them to attend one of the following meetings:
- 6:30-7:30 p.m., Wednesday, November 5, Poudre High Auditorium, 201 Impala Drive
- 6:30-7:30 p.m., Thursday, November 13, Fossil Ridge High School, 5400 Ziegler Road
Currently, students at 4 of 16 PSD choice or option schools receive this bus service, creating concerns for the fairness and equity of providing this service to some and not to other families. PSD is not able to offer transportation that is fair and equitable for all 16 option programs.
Due to the need to provide consistent services for all programs, the increasing number of choice students, and increasing transportation costs, bus service currently being provided for school choice will either be eliminated or the possibility of a fee-based system will be considered for the 2009-10 school year. (Note: this does not impact bus service in neighborhood/attendance areas, space available, or for federal programs, as described under Definitions, below.)
At the public meetings, PSD will:
· Share information on why this decision is being made,
· Discuss and gauge interest in a fee-based system, and
· Discuss other options, such as accessing space available busing, utilizing the City of Fort Collins’ Transfort bus system, and/or organizing carpools.
Background Leading to this Decision:
- A School Choice Busing Committee met during fall 2007 to study options for choice education programs that would be fair and equitable to all families, and financially sustainable.
- The committee could not offer a fair, equitable, and financially sustainable means for Choice Busing. PSD encompasses 1,856 square miles. Not enough resources are available to provide transportation for all choice students near their residence to any school within PSD.
- The committee recommended choice busing continue for the 2008-09 school year, while the transportation department continued to analyze costs and options such as partnering with the City of Fort Collins Transfort bus system to see if the district could provide bus service to choice/option schools. Note: While partnerships with Transfort could help, coordination of routes/schedules will not replace all school choice program routes.
- PSD administration discussed the option of fees with the Board of Education at its August 26, 2008 work session, prior to this recommendation.
- If fees were to be imposed, a public hearing would be scheduled, and the Board of Education would need to approve the fees. State law says the Board of Education determines to whom and under what circumstances transportation is provided to students.
Costs and Services Provided by Other Colorado School Districts:
Due to the increased costs and limited resources, it has become cost prohibitive for PSD to continue to provide choice busing:
- Currently, services are being provided for 4 PSD schools. To provide bus services to all PSD schools that have a choice education program, services would have to be expanded to a total of 16 schools providing educational options. It is cost prohibitive to expand services to all these schools.
- Research into other Colorado school districts found only one small district is providing busing for school choice programs. That district’s schools are all within very close proximity to one another.
- PSD currently transports more than 12,500 students on 770 routes a day.
- Transportation costs totaled approximately $7.8 million in 2007-08.
- As an area of categorical funding, transportation funding does not grow or keep up with program needs. In 2006-07, PSD received reimbursement for 24.6% of total transportation costs, and the rate of reimbursement is declining annually.
- The cost of bus fuel increased 35% in the last year. In 2006-07, PSD spent $861,764 for fuel; in 2007-08, PSD spent $1,159,271 for fuel. 2007-08 started at $2.49 a gallon, and ended at $3.97 a gallon, going as high as $4.00 a gallon. Unleaded started at $2.59, and ended at $3.49 a gallon.
Definitions:
Below are definitions of the types of transportation offered to PSD students. Only school choice busing is being recommended for changes.
§ School Choice busing – Routes created to transport students to schools with School Choice programs. Examples include transporting students to Poudre High, Lesher Junior High, and Lincoln’s International Baccalaureate (IB) programs; and to Kinard Core Knowledge Junior High.
§ Attendance area transportation – PSD provides round-trip transportation for students attending the neighborhood school in their attendance area: provided for elementary students living more than 1 mile from school; junior high students living more than 1½ miles from school; and senior high students living more than 2 miles from school.
§ Space available busing – Transportation for students to schools outside their home school attendance areas or boundaries, utilizing existing route stops, if buses are under capacity or have space. Families submit applications.
§ Busing for federally mandated programs — Students in federally mandated programs receive transportation, based on federal law. These include Special Education, English language acquisition (ELA), McKinney homeless, and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) programs.
For additional information, contact Ellen Laubhan, PSD Communications Services, at 490-3427 or email elaubhan@psdschools.org.
