Friday, Nov. 25, 2011

Budget woes could affect school sports

Transportation costs lead officials to consider vans

The Los Banos Unified School District is contemplating adding to its van fleet as a way to rein in the cost to transport athletic teams as state budget cuts loom.

"The district is looking at the potential of economizing transportation," Superintendent Steve Tietjen said. "We are looking at how many trips could be reduced from large buses to vans. Football with 92 to 100 students, you'd need nine vans; it wouldn't be cost effective. But a seven-member golf team..."

Los Banos and Pacheco high schools pay $1 per mile when traveling to away games. The remainder of the fuel cost is picked up by the district. Last school year the two high schools paid $117,528 for gas. Tietjen estimates that on bus travel alone the district paid about $220,000.

Last week, the state Legislative Analyst's Office released an outlook that said 2011-12 revenue will run $3.7 billion below what state lawmakers had assumed when they approved the budget in June.

The district is concerned that transportation funding is going to be slashed in a few weeks. California's schools face automatic cuts to their transportation budgets by Dec. 15 if the state falls $2 billion short in its projection of $4 billion in new revenue, Tietjen said.

He said he is hoping the legislature can be convinced to take average daily attendance dollars instead. He said that way districts will have a choice of where to make spending cuts.

Pacheco high school opened in 2010, adding a third set of teams -- junior high athletics were not eliminated until this past summer -- for the district to transport to games.

Tietjen downplayed the addition of Pacheco High School adding to transportation costs.

"It's not because of Pacheco High, these are issues that always existed," he said.

The district has 26 buses and three vans. Charter buses are also used at times when the district's 16 bus drivers would be unable to take teams to and from games without exceeding their 10-hour work day. Bus drivers also have 18 daily routes taking children back and forth from school.

Vans, driven by coaches and parents who receive proper background checks, decrease the cost the district pays for bus drivers.

Tietjen said the high schools also try to keep costs down by not scheduling away games on the same day. That does not mean that there are not times when the two schools both have teams playing outside of Los Banos, Tietjen added.

School board President Chase Hurley said he believes the transportation costs can be decreased easily.

"I think there's probably a lot of savings out there, it's just managing our time and staff getting its arms around a new high school," Hurley said.