School district won't alter bus schedule

While other local districts are being forced to cut routes or increase busing fees as a result of the state's budget cuts, Conejo Valley Unified School District will do neither, keeping schedules and bus pass prices the same.

CVUSD's most recent contract with Durham School Services is in its second year of three.

The contract is not fuelsensitive, so despite increases in gas prices over the last few years, CVUSD isn't paying for them.

Other districts that may own their own buses, said Dep. Superintendent Jeff Baarstad, would be hit hard by climbing fuel costs.

"Our contract is based on the cost of bus runs, and they can't raise or lower that based on fuel costs," Baarstad said.

Last month when the CVUSD school board was voting on cuts, eliminating buses at the high school level was considered. However, since high schools run at different times than elementary and middle schools, the same buses can transport everyone.

"We pay for buses more or less in four-hour increments," Baarstad said. "We could eliminate high school busing and not save a dime."

The district also considered raising bus fees for students by 15 to 20 percent.

"If we did that, it would only bring in about $35,000 to $40,000, and if we lose 20 percent of the riders because of the increase, it just wasn't worth it. So we didn't eliminate any busing and we didn't increase the cost to parents," Baarstad said.

Home-to-school busing runs about $700,000, but the district gets $380,000 from the state and brings in about $180,000 from bus pass fees.

Special education transportation, which must be provided at no cost by law, costs $1.15 million.

The district receives about $790,000 from state transportation funds.

In total, CVUSD receives about $1.35 million in state funds and fees for busing and spends $1.83 million, making the district's investment about $480,000.

CVUSD's contract with Durham ends June 30, 2010.