As one parent put it--and any parent knows--- a 1 hr ride for the average 4-year old means that a snack and games (and perhaps even a potty break) are mandatory accoutrements. On a school bus? We don't think so.
According to school district busing czarina Rhonda Page, the length of ride time ranges from two minutes to one hour, with an average ride time of 29 minutes. The average sounds OK, but as is often the case with statistics, the standard deviation can speak volumes. If your child has the 2 minute ride, you're loving it. If your child has the 60 minute ride. Not so much. Of course there's also the point that it seems rather strange for kids to spend 2 hours on buses for 2.5 hours of education.
At what cost?
For the 2009-10 school year, 391 students were enrolled in SP4K, and 155 were transported by bus. The cost to transport those students was $259,847.63. [ $1,676 per child]
As of October 2010, 462 students were enrolled in SP4K for the 2010-11 school year, and 133 were transported by bus. This year's busing cost is $261,124.30. [$1,963 per child]
Using this year’s data, if the maximum time on the bus were shortened from 60 minutes to 45 minutes, the best-case scenario would add two additional SP4K routes at a cost of $70,296.16. Increasing costs to $2,492 per child. That also amounts to cost of about $5,000 per minute shaved off the maximum ride time.
The worst-case scenario would add four routes at a cost for $141,058.32 That would mean busing costs for 4K rise to $3,024 per child. And shaving the maximum ride time costs $10,000 per minute.
Transportation cost comparisons
In July, we he;d a special electors meeting to discuss reducing the busing limit for middle schoolers from 2.0 to 1.5 miles. The change would have affected 135 bus riders from Prairie View and 45 bus riders from Patrick Marsh. The cost for the additional routes for those children was approximately $89,650. That would have cost $498 per child. But it was voted down.
The average cost per child transported by bus in the district is about $350-$400. How come it's so much more expensive for 4K.
Poor Projecting
Looking back at the original "plan" for SP4K costs, we see that the projection for busing costs for this year was only $52,000. In fact, as far out as the 2013-14 school year, the busng cost was only projected to be about $56,000.
Hmmm...how did we get from a projection of $54K bus cost to over $260K? Was the school board even informed?
That's more than a 500% increase over the program budget estimates!
That's further off than even the weatherman gets!
What's sad is that had the school board members known that transportation cost were going to be this high, they might not have been so quick to support 4K.
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