Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Belen schools considering consolidating bus schedules

Brent Ruffner News-Bulletin Staff Writer; bruffner@news-bulletin.com

Belen Belen Consolidated School administrators are considering busing students from all grade levels together in order to save on transportation costs for the upcoming school year.

The program, called pod and shuttle, would consolidate routes while sending fewer buses to each of the district's 10 schools.

Superintendent Dr. Patricia Rael said the program would initially be pilot-based, starting with one of the elementary schools in Belen.

But Rael said she would hold a series of open forums before the district makes any significant changes.

"We would want to talk with the community first," Rael said. "I feel uncomfortable not talking about it. It would be a negative thing to do."

Rael said such a move won't happen until at least October, and said a district-wide change wouldn't be until the 2010-11 school year. She said the program could include seating charts to separate younger kids from high school students.

"It's a safe, efficient, cost-saving way to travel to school," Rael said. "But we have to have the support of the families."

The district is looking to save money after the transportation department's budget was cut by $450,000 by the New Mexico Public Education Department for the fiscal year that began July 1.

Transportation Director Kurt Kaufman said the district would save on gasoline by filling up buses instead of having a few students on each bus.

"Right now, we use about 30 buses," Kaufman said. "(With the pod and shuttle method) we could use 12 to 14 buses."

Kaufman said drivers' times would be cut, but no one would lose their job. He said the cost-saving measure is practiced in "at least 50" of the 89 school districts in New Mexico without any trouble.

"Most schools don't have a problem with it," Kaufman said.

Kaufman said such a transition would be seamless.

"It would be ideal for younger and older siblings," he added. "Parents could leave to go to work earlier because they wouldn't have to wait for their elementary kids to get on the bus." He said older kids could look after their younger siblings on the bus.

"Parents wouldn't have to worry because their kids would be on the same bus," Kaufman said.

The transportation director said bad behavior of older kids wouldn't have a significant impact on that of kids in lower grade levels.

"We would have zero tolerance," Kaufman said. "There would be no fighting or cussing. It might happen once, but riding the school bus is a privilege, not a right. Kids can lose their privilege at the drop of a hat if they aren't careful."

But Kaufman said a reorganization of start and stop times has to happen before busing kids of all ages together. He said the district changed times this year because drivers were waiting 30 to 40 minutes between routes. New times are pending the board's approval, and have not been made public by the district.

If such a program was implemented, Kaufman said, the pod and shuttle system would only work in the pickup times of students because of schedule conflicts.

"We are going to try and make it work," Kaufman said. "But I don't see it happening right now."

For now, the district will stick to conventional cost-saving measures.

Kaufman said he saved the district about $2,000 by fueling up the district's fleet of 42 buses for the summer. He said the department saved money by attrition, with two employees not returning this year.

The transportation director said the department would continue to invent ways to save money to insure that services won't be cut in the future.

"We haven't been using resources efficiently," Kaufman said. "We have to think outside the box."

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