Schools hurt by fuel costs
Posted on Sunday, June 15, 2008
There is not much the Fayetteville School District's transportation department can do to combat the rising cost of diesel fuel other than driving less, according to transportation director Tommy Davenport.
"I don't know how much we can do," he said.
"We're going to have to make some difficult decisions. Something's got to give," Fayetteville Associate Superintendent Randy Willison said.
The main options are to reduce routes or stops, which could create more of a hardship for students, he said. Davenport said he hasn't made any decisions yet on whether such changes will be implemented for the upcoming year.
Toward the end of the school year, though, Davenport said he noticed an increase in the number of students riding the buses. This came mostly from students whose parents formerly drove students to school and some high school students who stopped driving to school due to high gas costs.
"Some of the routes in the Salem area, they were absolutely packed," Davenport said.
Statistically, riding the bus is also the safest way to get to school in terms of traffic accidents, Davenport noted. Children are less likely to be injured or killed riding the bus than they are walking, driving themselves or being transported by their parents.
Willison said he would like to make any decisions about route or stop changes by August so parents and students can be informed.
Adjustments for residents who live near schools will not save as much money as cutting long-distance routes, but students who live far from the schools need the service more, Davenport noted.
"How many stops you make is the key. If you drive to Goshen to pick up kids, you're going to drive to Goshen," Willison said. "We may have to evaluate how many side streets we go down."
There are no attendance zone changes or new school openings for 2008-09, which might automatically prompt some route changes.
"This is strictly about fuel costs," Willison said.
The school does get a break on certain taxes imposed on diesel fuel, but even with tax breaks, Davenport said his most recent fuel order was $ 4. 17 per gallon. The order before was $ 4. 29 per gallon In addition, Davenport said the rapidly rising fuel costs caused his department to go about $ 100, 000 over budget this year. Besides fuel, costs have increased for tires, oil and bus parts, he said.
The difference will likely have to be made up by transferring money from another school fund, but it is all school money, Willison noted.
"The fuel allotment we have would cover us if gas was $ 2. 40 (a gallon )," Willison said.
Davenport said they have been asking drivers to shut off engines instead of idling at schools to save fuel, but there is limited potential to do that.
"We can't do that on city streets," he noted.
The Fayetteville school bus fleet runs entirely on diesel, which became a preferred fuel for buses in part because it cost the same or less than gasoline years ago and was more efficient, Davenport said.
It might be cheaper at this point to go back to gas engines even if they get fewer miles per gallon, he speculated, but most buses are not made with them now.
Davenport said he did some research and found an electric-powered school bus that costs about $ 250, 000, more than three times what a new diesel bus might cost.
"That would buy three (regular ) buses. That's an awfully big investment on the front end," Willison said.
For the most part, the main options to save money are to reduce the number of miles driven on morning and afternoon routes and reduce field trips or activity trips, Willison noted. The department could also forego the purchase of new buses and use money that would be spent on new buses to cover fuel costs. "We don't have a lot of extra buses, though," Willison noted. "Any time you let that go it can come back to haunt you later. "Fayetteville is not the only school transportation department struggling with the high fuel costs. Farmington Superintendent Ron Wright said his district purchased a set of used buses from the Heber Springs School District this year instead of buying new models to save money for fuel. This helped in preventing the transportation budget from going as far over budget as it could have.
"We're hoping to go back to new ones (in the future )," Wright said.
Farmington is opening a new school, Folsom Elementary, for the 2008-09 school year and that will require some route adjustments. Wright said they hope to move two of the five buses that picked up students at Williams Elementary to the new school, so Williams would only have three routes next year.
Wright said they are also talking about sharing bus rides with the Prairie Grove School District for certain student activities and limiting field trips.
Two years ago, Farmington enacted a rule that decreased bus service to students who lived within a half-mile of their schools and didn't have to cross U. S. 62. Wright said there aren't any immediate plans to expand the halfmile limit.
"People here are used to having that service and it's very hard to take something away that they're used to," Wright said.
If ser vice were to be reduced, that could prompt more people to drive their children to school and increase traffic congestion, he noted.
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