May 4, 2005

Budget cuts again

SJUSD board changes transportation strategy; passes fee-based option

By Carol Rosen
Editor

The San Jose Unified School District’s board of trustees passed a new transportation program for the 2005-06 school year on April 21. The changes are a hybrid version containing several of the options presented to the board offering busing reductions and/or adding revenues to next year’s budget.

SJUSD parent Sherry Boyngton offered a solution, a carpool campaign, to the transportation problem. Noting that carpooling would eliminate some of the traffic problems along with ensuring safe rides to and from school, Boyngton also provided a carpool request form and a sample listing.

The new program allows the district to reduce the budget and/or create revenues of $830,000. It affects about 1,000 of the 10,000 students currently eligible for busing. Approximately 4,500 students use the district-provided busing.

Made up of four different components, the option first will charge fees for transportation to students who do not qualify as social economic status under the Voluntary Integration Program (VIP). Otherwise, about 1,350 students will be charged for annual service, based on a yearly fee of $300. It is set up to provide a sliding scale for families with two or more students or for families qualifying for the free and reduced lunch program. It will result in annual district revenue of $200,000.

The second component of the new transportation strategy discontinues elementary magnet transportation, except for students qualifying as social economic status under the VIP. This component reduces two routes and provides yearly savings of $140,000.

The third component increases walking distance for grades six through 12 from three to 3.5 miles. Affecting about 740 students, it drops seven routes and provides savings of $490,000.

The final component is to realign bell times for maximum efficiency and seat use of the district’s school buses.
In addition to taking these steps, the district will negotiate with the Valley Transit Authority for a discounted student pass for all students and continue working with the city of San Jose monitoring areas impacted by these changes among several others.

“I’m a little disappointed,” noted Pam Foley, who is a board member for the Willow Glen area. “I personally had a goal in mind to save $1 million because I didn’t want to cut now and then go back and have to cut again next year.
But we had to do something, and we hope to keep cuts out of the classroom as long as possible.”

However, Foley is pleased that the option addresses all the safety issues parents brought up at the public forum. The option also saves additional money by realigning the bell schedule, and is “a good compellation of what the people present at the public forum were after,” she told the Times.

Unlike school closing meetings, the public forum on April 19 consisted of a large but quiet crowd of parents and students. They listened respectfully to the seven transportation proposals developed by the district’s transportation staff. And then they asked questions.

The initial seven options presented to school board members offered a range of savings proposals from $210,000 to just over a $1 million. One of them even added revenue for the district of up to $200,000 by charging fees for transportation.

While parents posed most of the questions, a few students noted potential problems and a grandfather even questioned the feasibility of youngsters walking longer distances to their schools.

One of the strongest pleas, however, came from a school bus driver who asked the board to consider the safety of children, especially elementary and middle school aged children taking the VTA bus or crossing gang territories on their way to school.

Others pointed out different solutions than those outlined, including carpooling. One parent noted that traffic problems would worsen without the buses and others pondered how their kids would safely get home from school while they were working.

A large but relatively quiet crowd of about 200 attended a San Jose Unified School District public forum April 19 to discuss transportation budget reductions.

The best question, however, came in Spanish. Lourdes Carrera, a parent, required a translator to tell school board members that these options shouldn’t even be under discussion. It’s a case where the governor and the federal government should pay for the buses, she said. The governments are cheating the children. “Instead of squandering money on a war that no one wanted, the president should give back to the children,” she added.

Other questions were less pointed. Clair Teal, who lives in New Almaden on Alimitos Road noted that a handful of children live in that area and get bused because they are so far from their schools. She understands the need for the money currently spent on bussing to go to textbooks and other budgetary items that the children need.

However, she’s worried about the traffic impact. Teal liked the idea of carpooling, but questioned how people who work will solve the problem. “We can get the kids to school, but we work, how do we get them home,” she later told the Times.

Many of the parents attending were worried about middle and elementary school students. Pat Pizzo, whose grandson attends Hacienda Elementary, is concerned about safety. He noted that it takes about an hour to walk two miles to school. “If I walk down Lincoln Avenue it’s safe, but what about the children that have to walk in rough neighborhoods. It’s scary. We need some sort of safety factor,” he said.

Cathy Oliver is a school bus driver who attended the meeting not to save her job but to speak out for the kids who ride the bus. She said that riding a school bus is not a luxury, but a necessity. Her primary concern is for the safety and welfare of the children, especially middle school kids. In addition to kidnapping and traffic concerns, gangs could pose problems. For example, in order to walk to school, some students would need to go through rival gang territories, which would not just be scary and intimidating but pose definite safety threats.

Danielle Ramirez, who graduated from a SJUSD high school last year, noted that there are a number of problems with public transportation. First, VTA buses are often late, making students tardy. She rode VTA buses from third through 12th grade, she said, and there are “crazy people” on public transportation.