TRUMBULL COUNTY Bristol to cut busing for high school students

Cuts will go deeper if the levy on the Aug. 3 special election ballot fails.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
BRISTOLVILLE -- Busing for Bristol High School students will be eliminated next year as the school district continues its cost-cutting measures.
The state financial planning and supervision commission appointed to oversee district finances approved a resolution Tuesday eliminating two full-time bus driver positions to save about $50,000 including wages and benefits.
The commission was appointed after Ohio Auditor Betty Montgomery declared the district in fiscal emergency last October because of a projected deficit.
The district buses kindergarten through 12th-graders. Schools Superintendent Rocco Nero recommended the change to bus only kindergarten through eighth-graders. That will accommodate reduction of two full-time drivers.
"We're not going to the state minimum," Nero said.
State minimum
The state minimum requirement is for no kindergarten-through-eighth-grade pupils living within a 2-mile radius of school to be bused. There isn't a state minimum for busing high school students.
If a five-year, 6.9-mill levy on the Aug. 3 special election ballot fails, though, Nero said the district will likely have to go to the state minimum. Voters rejected levies on the November 2003 and March 2004 ballots.
If it passes, Nero said he'd recommend reinstating busing for high school students next year.
Peg Betts, commission chairwoman, pointed out that even with the cuts already planned, including the closing of Farmington Elementary School at the end of this year, the district still faces a $236,285 deficit.
"If the levy does not pass, additional cuts will have to be made for the next school year," she said. "We are down to cuts that will hurt kids and hurt programs."
The levy would generate $500,000 annually.
"We think the decisions have been tough to date, but this is going to get even tougher" if the levy fails, Betts said.
denise_dick@vindy.com