The Folsom Cordova Unified School District has saved its high school bus transportation from the budget ax – at least for the time being.
District trustees last week approved more than $50,000 worth of cost-saving measures that will reduce services but have less impact on students than transportation cuts previously made in the budget for 2008-09.
As part of $6 million in cuts approved in June, high school transportation was to have been eliminated, along with any bus route serving fewer than five students.
But Superintendent Patrick Godwin said the action approved by the board last week "creates a savings and allows us to restore the majority of our high school transportation."
Bus transportation for the district's high schools – Vista del Lago, Cordova and Folsom – was restored in time for the start of school last Monday.
As the new school year approached, a number of parents became concerned about how their children would get to and from campus.
The elimination of high school transportation would have affected 700 to 800 students, and elimination of routes with fewer than five riders would have affected 10, based on last year's ridership.
Mather resident Laura Wetz told board members that she and her husband work and can't drive their two children to Cordova High or afford to buy them cars. And she said there's no Regional Transit service where they live.
"We rely on the (school) bus transportation," she said.
Under the direction of Deputy Superintendent Debbie Bettencourt, district staff came up with an alternative proposal to reinstate most of the bus transportation.
The proposal includes:
• Securing a location in Folsom for overnight parking of all Folsom-only bus routes, a savings of about $24,000 – assuming the buses would need to fuel at the Rancho Cordova bus barn once a week.
• Eliminating the route from the Vista del Lago attendance area to Folsom High School for a $5,000 annual savings.
• Combining Russell Ranch and Empire Oaks regular education routes and combining two Theodore Judah regular routes for a savings of $5,000.
• Eliminating three under-utilized routes for afternoon kindergarten sessions, for a savings of $7,500.
• Raising transportation fees 15 percent rather than 10 percent, as approved in April, generating about $11,000 in new revenue.
Folsom resident Richard Golub, a retired employee for the California Department of Transportation, told district trustees he was "astonished when I saw you were going to cut transportation."
While he praised the plan to reinstate high school transportation, Golub warned the problem could resurface next year.
He suggested the district better coordinate its bus service with Folsom Stage Line and consider charging students for parking in high school lots.
With rising fuel prices, board Vice President Ed Short said the district "needs to prepare for the worst."
More information on bus routes can be found on the school district's Web site www.fcusd.k12.ca.us.
Call The Bee's Walter Yost, (916) 608-7449.
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