School busing depends on levy passage

The school bus mileage is high because of the square miles in the district.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
BRISTOLVILLE -- If a 6.9-mill school levy on the Aug. 3 special election ballot passes, busing will remain intact.
Superintendent Marty Santillo told members of the financial planning and supervision commission at a meeting Tuesday that a rumor had been circulating in the community that busing would be cut even if the levy passed.
Santillo said if the levy passes, busing will remain as it was for the 2003-04 school year, which was for all grade levels.
The 6.9-mill levy would generate about $500,000 annually. Voters rejected levies in March and last November.
The state auditor's office placed the district in fiscal emergency last October, citing a projected deficit. The commission was appointed to help dig the district out of the red.
Earlier this year, the district discussed eliminating transportation of high school students to cut costs.
The state minimum for transportation is to bus kindergarten through eighth-grade pupils living outside of a two-mile radius of school.
Determining busing
Dave Decsman, a consultant with the Ohio Department of Education's transportation section of the Office of School Finance, told commission members that school transportation funding from the state is based on the number of pupils bused.
Districts do a head count of bus riders each October, and those numbers are used to calculate the amount the district will receive for the next school year.
The district wouldn't see a loss of revenue for transportation until the second year if high school busing is eliminated, said Peg Betts, commission chairwoman.
Decsman said the district's buses average 18,000 miles per year, which, he says, is high because of the square miles the buses cover.
"It's just the nature of the district," he said.
Santillo said he's concerned about eliminating high school busing because of the district's area and dirt roads in some areas.
Other cuts already implemented include the closure of Farmington Elementary School, eliminating some staff positions and instituting a pay-to-participate policy for pupil activities.