County schools change busing system
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| Cick to enlarge. Route for Rockbridge County Bus 63 |
Rockbridge County has changed school bus routes this year in an effort to cut its gas costs.
Because he doesn’t know when gas prices will stabilize, Scott Hannah, director of transportation for Rockbridge County public schools, says that making changes is really the only way to reduce costs.
“If we knew where fuel prices were going to stay, we could plan accordingly,” Hannah said.
Changes include reassigning several bus runs and having half-full buses meet at a central point from which only one bus will continue on to schools. Hannah said that while the combined buses hold more students, they aren’t overcrowded.
The new routes have caused few changes for bus drivers and riders. Three or four children of every 30 might experience a slightly longer bus ride, but overall, the additional time is negligible, Hannah said.
Bus driver Lori Bare says she has about six or eight extra passengers per ride if all the children show up. The biggest change for Bare, who has been driving for 11 years, is that she now has a bus run with high school students in addition to middle school and elementary school runs, so her workday is longer. As far as cutting costs, Bare says, “I’m sure it’s helping.”
The school system has also adopted a sign-up sheet for students who want to use after-school activity buses, so that buses will no longer be dispatched when there are no riders.
But if too few students sign up for a particular afternoon, the route may be canceled, forcing the students who need a ride to cancel their plans or find alternate transportation.
Hannah acknowledges that while subdividing the routes is manageable, to cut routes completely is out of the question. With 600 miles of roads in the county, it’s up to Hannah and his staff to ensure that every child is picked up at his or her driveway each morning and dropped off safely in the afternoon.
“The problem is that you don’t know how much you need to save,” Hannah said. Last month the school system spent $34,000 in diesel fuel for the buses, an average of $3.76 per gallon. That number is down from last May when diesel fuel was as high as $4.07 per gallon.
Cost data from September are being gathered, and will be ready for analysis next week, Hannah said.
Last year Rockbridge County buses covered almost one million miles, accounting for 86 percent of the total transportation budget.
Monday, the school board held a work session to discuss the possibility of redistricting area elementary schools in hopes of balancing student-teacher ratios among the schools. While the board is only in the preliminary stages of discussion, some citizens in attendance wondered what effect redistricting would have on transportation costs.
“Redistricting may add some miles to existing routes,” Hannah said.
In the afternoon, bus drivers aim to get children home within one hour of the end of the school day. Forty-eight buses are sent out every morning, while in the afternoon the number is raised to 50 in order to get children home before 4:30 p.m.
Hannah’s next step is to meet with the Transportation Advisory Committee, which is made up of representatives from all of the area schools, including veteran drivers. The goal of the committee is to improve daily operations of the transportation system, while keeping safety in mind.
Despite the instability of fuel prices, Hannah believes he is doing everything he can to economize.
“We have just about tweaked everything. We’ve got to do what we’re doing now,” Hannah said, “or we won’t have school.”
Produced by
Washington and Lee
journalism students.
Lead Supervisors:
Prof. Brian
Richardson
Prof. Indira Somani
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Reporting Supervisors:
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Prof. Indira Somani
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