WEATHERSFIELD 7 school buses set to roll next week

Parents and pupils will be notified by mail this week of new bus routes.
By MARY SMITH
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
MINERAL RIDGE -- The Weathersfield school district gave the go-ahead for seven buses to start running again Monday to pick up any of the 700 to 750 pupils who have been without busing for the last nine months.
Superintendent Michael Hanshaw announced Wednesday that the buses will start rolling again, keeping a promise made by the board of education this summer in advance of a failed levy request that went on a special ballot Aug. 3. Now he's making good on a promise he made before this Tuesday's election that busing would resume if the district's school levy passed.
Voters approved the 5.5-mill emergency operating levy for five years to generate $538,168 annually.
This is the fourth time since May 2003 that the district has sought additional operating funds from the voters, after it learned in October 2002 that it would be losing $621,000 annually from RMI Titanium in personal tangible property taxes.
"We are very happy, very pleased that the community is very supportive of the schools," Hanshaw said.
Cut to state minimums
The district cut busing in January to state minimums, which only requires that pupils in kindergarten through eighth grade are bused. Busing turned into a major issue of contention at several school board meetings, which had to be moved from the school library to the high school cafeteria and frequently drew 250 parents who wanted busing restored.
Of the district's 1,050 pupils, only 95 were outside the two-mile limit and were being bused since last January, according to figures provided by Ron Knight, transportation coordinator. Hanshaw said Knight estimates that 700 to 750 pupils will be re-boarding those buses Monday.
Parents and pupils will be notified by mail this week of what the new bus routes will be, what time they will be picked up and dropped off, and where their bus stop will be after a reorganization of routes ordered by Hanshaw.
One driver will be brought back from layoff, but the other three drivers, who had taken other nonteaching jobs in the schools, will have to go through a five-day bidding process through the union if they want to go back to being bus drivers. If not enough drivers bid for the jobs, someone new will have to be hired, the superintendent said.
Instead of nine buses, seven will be used. Hanshaw added that the district will save $33,901 on the new bus schedule structure for the school year.
Still on tight budget
Everything else in the district will remain on the tight budget the district has been maintaining since it was placed under state fiscal watch, Hanshaw said.
"We have to try to maintain our current staffing levels as they are now," he said. The district put a policy in place in the past two years that there be no new hiring if teachers retire or leave if positions can be filled from within. The result has been larger class sizes for some grade levels, and no new curriculum has been added or textbooks bought.
Hanhsaw also noted that an emergency levy for 4.8 mills, which comes up for renewal in November 2005, is also crucial to the district. He and treasurer Angela Lewis said the district does not expect to be removed from the fiscal watch imposed in March 2002 now that Tuesday's issue passed, because it also needs approval of the renewal, which generates $418,120 a year.