By Sarah Campbell
scampbell@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — School officials say the Rowan-Salisbury School System’s transportation pocketbook is already suffering from rising gas prices, and another hit could be just around the corner.
State money could run dry before the end of this school year, forcing the district to dip into local dollars. And that trend is likely to continue next year if deep transportation cuts are adopted by the General Assembly.
Gov. Bev Perdue’s proposed budget calls for a 10 percent reduction in transportation money, but state legislators are considering cuts of up to 12 percent.
Tara Trexler, the school system’s chief financial officer, said the district’s state transportation allotments took hits of 3.9 percent in 2009-10 and 2.4 percent in 2008-09, eliminating a combined total of $262,000 from Rowan-Salisbury schools.
The governor’s proposed budget would result in a $415,000 loss to the school system’s transportation dollars.
Trexler said the district received about $4.3 million in state funds for “to and from school travel” this year, more than half of which went to pay driver salaries and benefits.
“An additional $240,000 of support from our local budget goes toward that type of bus travel,” she said in an e-mail to the Post.
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Judy Burris, the school system’s transportation director, said there is already little room for cuts to services.
The district has decreased the number of buses on the road each day. There were about 195 buses during the 2007-08 school year and 189 now. About 10,395 students ride buses each day.
And costs continue to escalate as gas prices rise, Burris said.
The average cost of diesel fuel in December was $2.50 a gallon. By March, it had jumped by 70 cents to $3.20 a gallon.
“School buses average about six miles per gallon,” Burris said. “We already have a no idling policy in place.
“I do think we are running our buses as efficiently as possible.”
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The governor’s proposal also shifts bus replacement to local school districts.
Those replacement costs would also pose a challenge to Rowan-Salisbury schools, with the price of each new bus at about $80,000.
The district received 12 new buses last year on the state’s tab.
Burris said the state’s current school bus replacement criteria includes the following: 1991 or older regardless of miles, 1993 or older with 160,000 miles or 1994 or newer with 200,000 miles.
“Based on information we have at this time, it appears that three buses would be eligible for replacement (next) school year,” she said in an e-mail to the Post.
Burris said the amount of wear and tear hasn’t been an issue in the past, but it could be.
“It’s never been a problem for us locally to put miles on the buses because the state replaced them,” she said.
The school system has replaced 62 buses in the last five years.
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The school system’s local funds are already being used to support the transportation for High School Choice and New Bridge programs as well as Henderson Independent High School and homeless students.
Those four groups of students will cost the district an estimated $747,507 this year, which equates to an average cost per student of $2,565. A total of about 214 students are in the programs this year.
Those costs are calculated at a gas rate of $2.66 a mile, which is already obsolete.
Monitors for these buses will likely cost the school system $65,102. Monitors add an additional 99 cents per mile for salary and benefits.
“One of the huge issues that we have right now is the discipline of these students,” Burris said. “We have to have a monitor on most of these buses.”
School officials say although transportation for the programs cannot be eliminated, they are looking at ways to reduce cost.
“The majority of the students would not have transportation if we didn’t provide it,” Burris said.
Superintendent Dr. Judy Grissom said the district is considering using vans instead of buses to transport New Bridge students to the program’s base at the Nazareth’s Children Home.
New Bridge, which involves students with mental impairments, has current transportation costs of an estimated $278,949 this year, or about $3,789 per student this semester. That’s the most of any of the programs.
But the primary challenge of the program will remain despite what kind of vehicle is used — getting students to the children’s home in Rockwell.
“The biggest problem is location, that’s a long way if you live in the western part of the county,” Grissom said.
One option to alleviate costs would be to nix transportation for the High School Choice program that began this year.
Transportation for the 25 students in that program is expected to cost the system about $85,934 this year.
Contact reporter Sarah Campbell at 704-797-7683.
By the numbers
Total estimated cost of programs not funded by the state for 2010-11
• $85,934 — High School Choice
• $278,949 — New Bridge (mental impairments)
• $157,196 — Homeless
• $225,427— Henderson Independent High School
• $747,507 — Total
Note: Estimated cost is calculated using a cost per gallon of $2.66. Cost for bus monitor, which is an additional 99 cents per mile, is included in the calculation.