In-town bus routes remain in question

As of now, Spencer School Board member Dave Schlichtemeier told about 30 school district patrons that the district will not provide "discretionary busing at taxpayer expense" for the upcoming school year.

Under Iowa Department of Educations guidelines, students in grades K-8 do not have to be transported by school bus if they live within two miles. The radius is three miles for students in grades 9-12.

"Budget times being what they were, it was a choice between hiring a teacher or doing the discretionary busing and we chose to hire the teacher instead," he told them. "That point can be debated, with good arguments on both sides of it, but for this next year, that's what we're doing."

Schlichtemeier reviewed a proposed fee-for-service plan with forum participants. Under the plan, the cost of riding a bus would be $1 per day, which translates to $175 for the entire school year. The district needs commitments from families of 300 students by June 19 to restore the routes in the upcoming school year.

The fee would be broken down per semester, with parents paying $85 during school registration period and $90 upon the students' return after the holiday break. Families with multiple children would pay no more than $350 for the in-town busing service.

If the daily fee proposal falls short of the 300 students needed to restore the in-town routes, the Spencer School Board may consider a shuttle system to get students from school to school for a lesser price.

A student at Lincoln Elementary who is enrolled in the YMCA's after-school program, could get shuttled to Johnson for a shorter trip, under that possibility.

The school district may also consider less-expensive special circumstance bus passes, for times of year with cold weather and for late starts or early dismissals.

"We need to know what the parents need us to do to provide help in getting their kids to school -- and what service they would use," said Julie Nemmers the director of transportation at Spencer.

One patron questioned the school board's spending earlier in the month, including the school district's recent decision to hire a director of school improvement, who will take over some of the duties of Spencer's outgoing assistant superintendent.

Schlichtemeier said: "we cut administration as much as far as we are willing to cut it," in response to criticism over the newly-created position.

"There are discussions going on down in the Legislature about making one superintendent per county," said board member Todd Korbitz. That is the direction of public education. We want to make sure we provide the best education for our students and in order to do that, we decided, and made the determination, that it is not effective to pay a person as an assistant superintendent when we can save money and still have a curriculum director or coordinator, which is the position you're referring to."

Forum participants also questioned a recent school bus purchase and a $295,839 parking lot expansion and drainage improvement project at Lincoln Elementary. Those projects come from the district's Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (PPEL). PPEL funds can't be used toward maintaining the lost bus routes, which are paid for as part of the general fund.

"We have three or four different funding streams that come into the district," Schlichtemeier explained. "The money that pays to operate buses is the same pool of money that teachers' salaries come out of."

If the $175 per student user fee doesn't generate enough revenue to operate the buses, then the district will not operate the buses beyond was is required, Schlichtemeier said.

"That's what we're exploring this morning -- to see if we have enough folks willing to help do that," Schlichtemeier said.

After the meeting, Korbitz left the door open for alternate plans. One option could eliminate the number of routes by two by implementing a "loop" system, so buses will still travel between the schools.

"We know we cannot have kids out there, uncontrolled and in unsafe situations," he said. "We need to make sure they are getting where they need to go, to school and back to where they need to go, in a safe manner. We need to come up with a viable solution that we can afford as a community and as a school district. Unfortunately, because of the economic times we're in and how we are dictated (to) by certain things, by the state, we're forced into this situation today. It's all about coming up with solutions. Have we come up with one yet? No, but that's what this was about today."

Korbitz said board members will meet with the administrative team to pencil out the cost of possible alternatives.

"It's about coming up with a solution that we all can live with and all can afford," Korbitz said. "Our primary concern is our students, bar none."

District patrons must submit a discretionary busing request form by June 19, for in-town bus routes to be restored at the $175 cost.

Anyone with questions should contact Nemmers at 262-8950 or 262-1118.

DISCRETIONARY BUSING 101:

School board members acknowledge some confusion when they tried to convey the impact of ending some bus routes within the community for the upcoming school year.

"The board used the term 'discretionary' when, maybe, what we should have more accurately used was 'in town busing,'" Spencer School Board member Dave Schlichtemeier said.

The Iowa Department of Education, requires student transport, if the student lives two miles or more from the school he or she attends. The distance grows to three miles for high school students.

"Anything within those boundaries falls under the term discretionary, meaning the state doesn't require us to run that bus," Schlichtemeier said.

Over the past 30 years, the Spencer School District continued to add discretionary routes.

"The need has been there, and we've been anxious to do what the patrons want us to do," Schlichtemeier said. "This last budget cycle, we realized we didn't have the money to do that anymore, so we eliminated everything that wasn't state-mandated from next year's budget."

Once the decision was made to eliminate in-town busing, the school board began looking at ways to provide the service for a fee.

"If we can get 300 kids signed up that way, then we'll have a program just like last year, only it will be funded by the folks who use the bus, rather than the general fund tax dollars," Schlichtemeier said.