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Ellis not a fan of the transportation funding formula, which Rising costs for everything from fuel to the school buses
some believe to be inordinately complex. themselves make it challenging to function on outdated
formulas. Then there are safety issues, training bus drivers,
“The funding formula is complex and filling it out is salaries and screening drivers carefully for working with
a burden,” she says, adding that it is time-consuming to children. Cocalico has been contracting its bus services for
collect all of the required data and the formula should be the past 22 years. New communications tools, like cameras,
changed to reflect the costs of today. two-way radios and GPS tracking add expenses that are not
part of the formula, but they are vital for safety.
To help reduce student transportation costs, Colonial
School District has focused on holding the line on how “The best thing we can do is to coordinate bus stops and
many bus stops are added. As she points out, the more stops make sure they are efficient,” says Lutz, noting that some
you add, the less students you can fit on a bus. If you add parents don’t understand that making too many stops in one
more stops, you will run out of time before the bus can pick neighborhood increases time to pick up students and makes
up enough students to fill the bus, which in turn will reduce the bus routes inefficient.
your subsidy.
In his years at Cocalico School District, Lutz has seen
“I have 124 non-public schools that are eligible for a huge shift in students who are homeless or displaced due
transportation, since we are so close to the mainline in to divorce, family issues, abuse, addiction or economic
Philadelphia. I require each school to provide their earliest reasons.
drop off and latest drop off in the morning and the same in
the afternoon for pick up at the school. This process has “It’s heartbreaking to see what kids are dealing with,”
allowed me to service multiple schools on one bus, reducing says Lutz. “I have to focus on the best interests and safety of
the cost for our non-public schools,” reports Ellis. these children. Their education may be the only thing giving
them any sense of stability.”
If she could change one thing in student transportation,
the biggest item on her transportation wish list would be to Also in Lancaster County, Donna Robbins, Chief
see the 10-mile limit for non-public schools reduced to five Operating Officer of Manheim Township School District,
miles. That would shave miles of costs for her transportation has observed the increase in homeless children in her school
budget. district. In fact, Robbins puts that issue at the top of her wish
list.
David Lutz, Director of Transportation for the Cocalico
School District in Northern Lancaster County, shares these “The unfunded mandate that comes with transporting
concerns about transporting students at non-public schools. special needs and homeless students is something I wish we
His solution, if he had his way, would be more drastic. could change. While these students need to be transported,
it’s not fair that the cost is a burden to local taxpayers,” says
“I wish that we could eliminate transportation to Robbins.
non-public schools,” says Lutz, noting that managing
transportation to non-public schools with varying schedules Manheim Township’s transportation is both contracted
and locations outside the district’s boundaries is a huge and district provided, reports Robbins.
drain on the budget and logistics.
She is most concerned about two specific mandates that
are very costly to the school district. One is the mandate
to provide transportation to non-public schools as far as 10
miles away, even on days when the district’s own schools
"I have to focus on the best are not in session. The second is the requirement to transport
homeless students to their “home” districts, no matter where
interests and safety of these the students may be located at present.
children. Their education may be the only
thing giving them any sense of stability.” “The under-funding of the transportation formula
does not make it easier for us to balance budgets,” says
- David Lutz Robbins. “Funding has not caught up with our escalating
costs. However, there are many unfunded mandates in
Pennsylvania, so it's par for the course.”
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