MOUNT VERNON — Soaring gas prices negatively impacted school budgets last school year, and many districts are looking for ways to deal with increased transportation costs in 2008-09.
Recognizing the problem, U.S. Congressmen Zack Space and Jerry McNerney introduced a bill on July 24 designed to provide grants to rural school districts overwhelmed by the high price of fuel.
“We cannot allow the price of gasoline to adversely impact the education our children receive,” Space said in an e-mail. “Education is the cornerstone of our future economy, and we have an obligation to ensure our children have every opportunity for a bright future. The gas crisis is threatening to reduce or eliminate bussing for many of our rural students, a move that would unfairly pass the burden on to our already struggling families.”
Dubbed the “Gas Price Relief for Schools Act of 2008,” the legislation has been referred to the Committee on Education and Labor. If passed, the bill would authorize the Department of Transportation to award grants for public school transportation based on the extent to which the recipient has been unfavorably affected by increases in fuel costs; whether the school district has implemented transportation cuts; changes in school operations due to increased fuel costs, such as a shorter school week; and the distance school buses must travel to transport students.
Area school district treasurers said they would be appreciative of any help with rising fuel costs, because all of their budgets were hit hard last school year.
Jessica Busenburg, East Knox treasurer, reported that the East Knox school district, which covers 144 square miles, saw a fuel cost increase of $44,000, or about 36 percent. Most of the increase, she said, occurred in the second half of the yaer when diesel prices increased drastically.
The Clear Fork Local School District, according to Treasurer Larry Lifer, is doing everything it can to load the buses to capacity, drive the fewest miles, and limit wasted fuel as the buses travel a 108-square-mile area at least twice a day.
“We invested $17,000 for a routing software package in the summer of 2005 to begin making our routes more efficient,” he said. “We have not changed our routes — we still run one route in the morning, and one route in the afternoon — nor have we had any significant change in the number of field trip or athletic trip miles, yet our fuel costs keep going up.”
In 2005-06, Lifer said, Clear Fork spent $97,880.33 for bus fuel. The outlay rose to $106,440.08 for the 2006-07 year, an 8.75 percent increase, and went to $150,540.27, a 41.4 percent increase, in 2007-08. Although he hopes it won’t all have to be used for fuel, Lifer said he budgeted $230,000 for this coming school year, a 52.8 percent increase over 2007-08.
Centerburg superintendent Dorothy Holden said her district experienced a more than 33 percent increase in transportation costs for fuel in just one year. That, she said, was in spite of the fact that fuel prices were closer to $3 per gallon for part of the school year as opposed to the current trend of nearly $4 a gallon.
Although Holden would welcome assistance with fuel costs, she is taking a wait-and-see stance.
“We already are seeing no help [from the state] on the purchase of buses and are facing an anticipated decrease in general state funding,” she explained. “The federal government just reported that we would see a 10 percent cut in funds that primarily help with our skyrocketing special-needs costs. Our district alone will see over a $50,000 reduction in grant money from federally funded programs. Yet the [mandated] services will have to be provided and Centerburg’s general fund, which has a very tight belt on already, will have to pick up the slack.”
