In response to the school bus survey from Middletown Unified School District that was given to students recently, the district maintains they need to cut transportation costs. All districts are facing unprecedented shortfalls in their budgets, but the figures that MUSD district office have provided in the survey are misleading and inaccurate. Because of declining enrollment and budget cuts, the district implies that transportation should be cut because it does not affect the classroom (make the cuts as far away from the classroom as possible). Without transportation, there will be no children to instruct. What hasn”t been explored are other ways to make cuts without affecting transportation or the classroom.
In the survey, the MUSD district has made it sound like a choice between teachers or buses. It is not. There are other areas to make cuts. One example is the Association of California School Administrators ? $8,000-plus per year. Another example is the California School Board Officers ? $8,000-plus per year. And did the district office staff really need those new, personally-embroidered sweatshirts and jackets? Perhaps the board could suspend their stipend for a year or two to save $14,400 per year. These costs are about as far away from the classroom as possible.
The safety issues surrounding home-to-school transportation are numerous. Some statistics are listed below:
1. The federal government considers school buses to be about nine times safer than other passenger vehicles during the normal school commute.
2. According to the National Safety Council, the national school bus accident rate is 0.01 per 100 million miles traveled, compared to 0.04 for trains, 0.06 for commercial aviation and 0.96 for other passenger vehicles.
This is your tax money! The district is trying to make you come home early to pick up your child, spend your time, your gas money and put your child at risk because the district wants to give you the responsibility of transporting your child to and from school. The district can find other areas to cut back on besides transportation or teachers.
Please attend the Middletown Unified School District school board meeting tonight at 7 p.m. at the Middletown multi-use room (cafeteria), to voice your opinions. Please contact our school board members: President, Bill Wright, 987-9227, Sandy Tucker, 987-0263, Jay Albertson, 987-9707, Yvette Sloan, 987-0595 and Lynette Carrillo, 987-3081.
Joyce Tucker and the MUSD Transportation Staff
Middletown
