LAKE COUNTY — Konocti Unified School District (KUSD) is working toward reconfiguring its bus routes in the face of looming cuts to transportation at the state level. In effort to eliminate deficit spending in transportation, the KUSD is reducing bus routes from 13 to six, with consideration of board policy.
Transportation reductions will be implemented in phases.
“All of the pieces to make this work are not yet in place,” Superintendent Bill MacDougall said. “We are working on that and plan to have them in place by May 21.”
According to Dana Moore, director of classified services, there has been consistent deficit spending in transportation within the district. He said that the KUSD typically receives about $700,000 for transportation from the state. He said the additional $350,000 needed to fund transportation is usually allocated through the general fund.
“Deficit spending is not OK,” MacDougall said. “The key is to look at what”s allocated and you spend accordingly.”
Moore said that historically the district has always experienced a deficit in transportation; however, the board has been able to find other funds to offset the cost. “The choices for the board have run out,” he said. “There aren”t other areas to pull resources from.”
Moore said that the district has been trying to reduce its overall transportation costs throughout the past three years with use of professional studies, eliminating or reducing routes to outlaying areas. He noted that transportation is not a requirement of the district. “A lot of parents don”t understand that home-to-school transportation is not required,” he said. “It”s the parents” responsibility to get their kids to school.”
The idea behind the reconfiguration of bus routes is to put stops in heavily populated areas. Board policy states that kindergarten through eighth grade students are not to be picked up within a mile of their school site. High school radius is two miles.
Moore said he determined the location of the new bus stops under a three-quarter mile radius for elementary school students. He said the new configuration evenly places bus stops outside that radius at about a half-mile apart. “We want to make fair reductions across the board,” he said. “I am spacing all stops about a half-mile apart. If someone was outside of that, they”d have no more than a half-mile to walk.”
MacDougall said the key to making the plan work will be collaboration with the city, the police department and the parents. He said it will be important to make sure that the areas the children are walking in are safe and supervised. Volunteers, he said, will be needed to walk with the children to make sure they are safe. He said the community must work together to take care of its children. “We need people to supervise the super stops, and we appreciate it,” MacDougall said. “We need the help of our parents who have the availability to help us out.”
MacDougall added, “We want to provide as many programs for the kids. These are times when we are given ?either or.” We want the parents to meet us half way.”
The district will be conducting town hall meetings to discuss the proposed changes to the bus routes. Meetings are scheduled at 6 p.m. as follows: April 16 at Burns Valley School; April 17 at Pomo School; and April 24 at Lower Lake High School. The discussion will include bus routes serving Carl? High School students.
