NO CHANGE IN BUS TRANSPORTATION EXPECTED

Cape Girardeau students eligible to ride the school bus last year will be eligible to ride the bus this year under a proposal expected to be presented to the Board of Education Monday.

The school board heard a preliminary report about busing at its retreat Saturday which calls for no change in bus ridership eligibility.

School Board President Ed Thompson said, "We will not be changing the mile radius."

However, all the details of the plan are not complete.

"I wish we had the complete proposal now," said Superintendent Neyland Clark. "It's the first of July and school starts Aug. 27. "I feel comfortable that we are going to stay with the current one-mile radius."

Officials are still looking at the possibility of changing the starting times of schools, but that too is a tough decision, Clark said.

"We are very concerned about the starting times for schools and how that relates to the amount of time children are on buses," he said.

Board member Gwen Bennett said she was concerned about children waiting a long time between the time the bus drops them off and school starts.

Clark said administrators will be studying that issue and exactly how the school busing proposal would work, hopefully before the Monday board meeting.

The school bus issue arose when the school board cut $1.2 million from its budget in March. One of the cuts changed the school bus ridership eligibility for students as a way to save the cost of two buses. The original proposal was to change from the current one-mile radius for elementary and secondary students to 1.5 miles for elementary students and 2 miles for secondary students.

Since that time, the district has employed a consultant to help computerize its student records and has been looking for ways to improve the student transportation efficiency rather than tamper with ridership eligibility.

Director of transportation for the district, James Englehart, said Saturday that school bus runs have been combined and changed to eliminate the cost of two buses. The result is increased efficiency for the district.

The school district is reimbursed from the state government for transportation according to a formula that considers efficiency.

However, Englehart said, as officials locally have been looking at ways to save money, the state government has changed the reimbursement formula, capping the amount of state funds going into the program.

"Now we are looking at how we can increase efficiency so we don't loose any more dollars," Clark said.

Englehart said the loss in state funds coupled with the district increase in efficiency rating may break even.