School Board news, notes

By Anna Mitchell  

FEBRUARY 24, 2010 1:10 p.m. (2)

Almost two hours of debate at Tuesday night’s Greenville County school board meeting unearthed long-standing and difficult to solve problems with bus transportation in the district.

Almost 27,000 of the district’s roughly 70,000 students ride a bus to or home from school each day, but for hundreds of them the rides exceed two hours out of their day. District transportation personnel did not have specific data to offer board members when asked about the percentage of students with long rides, but they said it is common knowledge – with children picked up as early as 5:35 a.m. and dropped off as late as 6 p.m. – that the rides can get very long.

The discussion arose out of a vote to change the district’s bell schedules for middle and high schools, essentially shifting the day for those schools to start and let out 15 minutes later. Board member Crystal Ball O’Connor offered an amendment to the plan asking that the schedule be changed provided that no bus rides already longer than an hour be increased.

O’Connor was primarily concerned with magnet school children at the elementary level – roughly 150 of them – who already have the longest bus rides and will see those increased at least 15 minutes now because they wait for the older children to be dismissed before embarking on their trips home.

In a 6-to-4 vote, O’Connor initially drew majority support for the amendment, but board member Deb Bush – citing potentially budget-busting problems for the transportation department – offered a substitute urging the district to study the problem and report back to the board.

No one knew how expensive or disruptive to transportation as a whole O’Connor’s amendment would be, and board members agreed unanimously they needed to know how long bus rides are for kids across the district before voting on a universal cap on bus rides.

All but 17 of the more than 300 school buses that transport children in Greenville County are owned and maintained by the state Department of Education. A state study of transportation issues here in 2005 through 2008 determined the district needed 34 more buses, but routes for all kinds of students – regular, choice-program and special needs – still exceed three and four hours a day, transportation director Norm Seidel said.

“Only one-third of students take a bus, which is known to be the safest way to get from your house to the school,” said board member Dan Moravec.

He said the district must seriously study how to get more children riding, which would increase state funding, and how the system as it stands could be tweaked or locally funded to help.

Seidel said a reasonable one-way ride given Greenville County’s size and rural populations would be an hour and a half.

“We aren’t even close with our resources to get to that,” Seidel said.

The school board also discussed:

Student Activity Funds: An audit of 41 schools revealed improvements to mistakes in their accounting of student-activity funds. A 2008 audit revealed 1,369 errors; they were down to 975 by the close of the 2009 budget year last June. Three elementary schools in 2009 had no errors: Alexander, Monaview and Mountain View. Twelve more had 10 or fewer errors. But 10 schools had 40 or more each, accounting for more than half of all errors – Bryson Elementary (45), Lake Forest Elementary (61), Sue Cleveland Elementary (43), Welcome Elementary (50), Blue Ridge Middle (71), Carolina Academy (40), Eastside High (75), J.L. Mann Academy (91), Southside High (50) and Travelers Rest High (42). Common mistakes across the district were in the area of cash disbursements – those that should have been charged to a more specific account, those not sufficiently supported, those charged to a wrong account and those not approved by a principal in advance. Board member Pat Sudduth asked why students charged too much for field trips aren’t given a refund, and auditor Richard Barber said issuing 50 checks for $2 is impractical. Teachers are supposed to use the extra money for trip-related classroom purchases or a scholarship fund for future trips. County finance director Jeff Knotts said personnel resistant to proper accounting could lose their jobs.

State funding shortfalls: The penny sales tax meant to help pay for public schools has never raised enough money to match the property taxes the Legislature abolished earlier this decade, Knotts reported. In its first year, the sales tax came up $14 million short. It was $59 million short in 2009 and is project to be $117 million short this year. “The question is where will they get $117 million?” Knotts said. “This is something, we told the delegation this could happen.” Knotts said he is following closely where the General Assembly might find the needed $117 million, required by state law to pay for education operations. Other agencies or other areas of education funding could be affected.

Comments

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Steve  - Thanks for posting this   |2010-02-24 08:10:52 It's good to see someone following the process. Reply

christy  - Improving bus routes is possible!   |2010-02-26 08:44:54 The way to get more students riding the bus is to be more efficient with the busing. Bus routes are completely disorganized, criss-crossing neighborhoods needlessly. Greenville schools should audit a school district with efficient busing, like Walled Lake (MI) Consolidated, which has earned significant recognition not only for efficiency, but also cost-effectiveness while maintaining state-of-the-art GPS bus tracking and on-board communications for student safety. Bus commutes in that area are generally shorter, but 70% of students ride, and no duration is longer than 15 minutes. With the size of Greenville County, extrapolate this out to 30 minutes, and it's a vast improvement. Reply

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