The Jordan Board of Education has voted not to fund every request for "hazardous" bus routes next year, but part of that is likely to change because of another miscalculation.
The school board voted 3-2 Tuesday to fund 110 of 129 requests for hazardous bus routes, which transport children living close to schools but who must walk along busy streets or cross railroad tracks, for example. The 110 requests come in just shy of $1 million, the amount budgeted for such routes. Other routes would have required shuffling for the board to afford them.Before the vote, Superintendent Barry Newbold said two routes, ranked by outside evaluators according to hazard formulas, had been miscalculated when a list went out a month ago. So, a route at Mount Jordan Middle School ended up ranked within the top 110, but one for Columbia Elementary kindergartners ended up outside the cutoff.
Mount Jordan parents had fought for the route, but the victory was bittersweet. "I feel especially since they had funding in the transportation area that they should fund the other hazardous bus routes," Jana Neddo, a mother, said.
But one more school might get its route wish.
The district recalculated again Wednesday and discovered another error on Columbia's request. It apparently was not given extra hazard weight because the kids are so young. So now, Columbia's route qualifies for funding.
Thing is, the board already voted to remove them and fund 110 -- not 111 -- special routes. So it probably will bring the issue up again for a vote in its May 9 meeting, board president Jane Callister said Wednesday. She notes the route would bring the total from $990,745 set Tuesday to $998,847 -- still within budget.
"This has been so emotional," Callister said. "We've worked on it a long time. We are trying to be careful that everything has been calculated properly. They've checked it over and over and over."
The district, though it's not required to, funds the routes. The state pays only to transport elementary and middle school students living 1.5 miles and 2 miles, respectively, away from school.
Tuesday's vote meant 19 route requests will not come to fruition next year. Ten of those would have continued current routes, Newbold said Wednesday. In all, some 1,000 of the district's 73,000 students will not receive requested special busing services under Tuesday's vote.
Ellen Wallace, Arlen Ekberg and Peggy Jo Kennett, who voted in the majority, noted a citizens task force recommended the district get out of the hazardous bus routes business and preferred spending any extra funds on student programs.
But Ralph Haws and Callister voted to shift $155,000 within the transportation budget to fund all requests. The shift would not have required a tax increase or affected programs.
District officials will examine routes regularly to see if hazards still warrant them.