School districts throughout Athens County have tightened their belts as increased transportation costs have forced them to reduce service to save money.
The price of diesel fuel has increased significantly over the past year
said Carl Martin, superintendent of Athens City Schools. We've reduced field trips and combined bus routes.
It's affected us dramatically said Dan Phillips, transportation supervisor for Alexander School District. We're encouraging bus drivers to take routes closer to where they live and reorganizing routes more efficiently trying to save a little money.
The situation is worse for the Federal Hocking School District, which is working its way out of a $1.8 million budget deficit.
We're in fiscal emergency
said Superintendent Jim Patsey, and transportation issues affect us a lot more than other districts.
Federal Hocking is taking steps to alleviate its financial crisis but Patsey said fuel costs have compounded the problem.
Our football team and band used to take four buses to games
Patsey said. Now we only give them one.
The district has encouraged those players who have vehicles to drive themselves to games. The district also cut five bus routes last year and cut another two for the upcoming school year, Patsey said.
The state is responding to the burden of rising transportation costs. A bill known as the Gas Relief for Schools Act was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives recently. The bill would provide emergency grants from the U.S.
Department of Transportation to districts responsible for providing school buses for the 2008 and 2009 fiscal years.
Recent drops in oil prices also have given schools hope. Martin said his district is waiting to see how prices will change before implementing any more cost-cutting measures.
Phillips said he wasn't sure if Alexander School District would seek to cut more costs. The next step for his district would be to reduce field trips.
Field trips have not been cut that I know of
Phillips said. Nothing's been done
nothing's been said about it yet.
Some school districts are taking more extreme measures. Reuters reported this month that more than 100 schools in 16 states have moved to four-day school weeks to save on transportation costs. These schools increased the number of hours in the remaining four school days from seven to nine.
Such a change isn't likely to happen in Athens County, said local education officials.
I don't think we would go to a four-day school week
Martin said. I don't know how we could get our full school year in. Ohio requires 178 school days in a year.
Patsey acknowledged that other school districts have considered shortening the week, but it would not be feasible with the size of Federal Hocking.
He said Federal Hocking schools cover half of the land in Athens County.
We already have elementary school kids taking hour-long bus rides to get to school every day. Adding more school hours onto that is just too much.
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