Davis County students will take fewer field trips and ride older buses so more than 500 of their peers can keep their bus privileges.
The school district announced this week that it will not cancel 11 routes for ineligible riders.The decision means the district will spend $116,000 this year to serve the riders - money the district will make up by not buying as many new buses as it needs.
Next year, though, anything could happen with the 11 routes and thousands of other students who currently aren't eligible to ride buses but do anyway.
"We're going to have to make some hard choices come this spring," said Superintendent Rich Kendell, "Because I don't think all of these routes can be justified. It's going to be a hard time for ineligible students."
State law says students who live two miles or more from their school can ride buses. Davis, as a courtesy and to keep its buses full, has allowed thousands of students living inside the two-mile mark to ride.
"Now, the transportation department just can't afford all of them. Our explosive growth is pushing them off," Kendell said.
The 11 routes with their 500 students were targeted earlier this year because every rider on all 11 buses is ineligible. Therefore, the district doesn't get any money from the state for the routes. The thousands of other ineligible riders are on buses with mostly eligible riders.
But when news spread that the 11 routes were on the chopping block, angry parents dumped hundreds of phone calls and letters on district officials.
Many parents worried their students' safety would be jeopardized if they had to walk to school.
However, other students pay significantly for the 11 routes:
* Officials wanted to buy 12 new buses last year and retire older ones that aren't built with as many safety features. They got six instead.
"These buses don't meet the current federal code, but we wouldn't have them on the road if they weren't safe," Kendell said.
Still, the district wishes it could have the newer buses with reinforced gas tanks, headrests and other improved safety features.
* Fewer buses are available for field trips. "Schools will find when they call for a bus for a trip that there won't be one available like there was in the past," Kendell said.