Poland school leaders consider parental-pay system for busing

By robert gutTersohn

rguttersohn@vindy.com

poland

For the Poland school district, the cost of busing its high school students back and forth outweighs its practicality.

The board of education therefore voted March 28 to cut high school busing in the fall, saving the district $283,195 a year, Superintendent Robert Zorn said.

“That’s just something we can’t afford,” Zorn said.

But parents unable to provide a ride for their student asked how their students would get to school.

About that issue, Poland school officials will meet Monday morning with the contract transportation company Transit Service Inc., which already transports the district’s and most of Mahoning County’s special education students to and from school.

“We pursued Transit Service to see if they’d contract individually with parents,” Zorn said. “The district would not pay for it.”

At the meeting, the two parties will figure out whether that would be possible.

“We’ve never done a private-pay system,” said Mike Pollifone, supervisor for the transportation company.

Last year, Poland measured high-school ridership per day with 72 being its low and 93 being its high. With the low usage of busing by its students, the district spent $3,000 a year for every high school student it transported, Zorn said.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.