Bus Fee Doubling

The Norfolk School Committee is dou­bling the school bus fee to $180 per child for next school year.

The new bus fee is capped at two chil­dren per family, meaning a family with two or more children rising the bus would pay a total of $360 per year.

The increase in the school bus fee is ex­pected to bring in an additional $30,000 next school year.

It is part of a package of fee increases and cost reductions that school officials say could avoid teacher layoffs even if vot­ers reject a proposed $1,067,157 million operating budget override of Proposition 2 ½. A special town election on the over­ride is scheduled for Tuesday, June 22. Fees for prekindergarten and full-day kindergarten are going up, too, and the School Committee also approved a new fee for band. The School Committee is also asking the teachers union to accept two furlough days next school year in lieu of professional development. About 39 percent of parents would have to pay to put their children on the bus, because state law requires that the school district pro­vide transportation free of charge for students who live more than 2 miles from the school they attend. The school district pays about $420,000 a year to provide school buses for students. About $162,000 of that figure goes to provide school buses for children who live less than 2 miles from their school, said School Commit­tee

member Thomas Doyle, a member of the School Committee’s Budget Subcommittee.

Riding the school bus was free for all Nor­folk students until last school year. In July 2008 the School Committee implemented a $90-per-child bus fee. That’s the figure par­ents paid for the 2008-2009 school year and the current school year ending this month. School Committee chairman Shawn Dooley broke down the costs during the committee meeting this past Wednesday night.

“For students within 2 miles of school, it’s not required by state law that we provide transportation. Currently we are providing that transportation at a rate of roughly $162,000 — is the district’s cost for those buses. Currently, the people that are taking those buses are con­tributing $30,000 of that. So they’re paying $30,000, the district’s paying $132,000. And this would be $60,000 versus $100,000 paid for by the district. And granted they are tax­payers, so they’re paying for it on both ends. Not to diminish that part, but that’s how we kind of broke it down … making sure the fees were still fair,” Dooley said. The School Committee voted 3-1 to double the bus fee Wednesday night. Dooley, Doyle, and Linda Andrews voted for it. Ross Gilleland voted against. (John Olivieri, the fifth member of the committee, did not attend the meeting.)

Aside from cost, critics of the school bus fee have seized on what they call the unfairness of it. Parents whose children live just outside the 2-mile limit don’t have to pay anything, while their neighbors who live just inside the 2-mile limit have to pay. (State law sets the param­eters for a school bus fee.) Since all taxpayers in Norfolk are paying something for the school buses, the fee-payers are in a sense paying twice.

Gilelland made that point during the com­mittee discussion Wednesday.

“I think there’s people are already pay­ing for it. Some people are paying for it twice. Bringing it up another 90 [dollars] on 39 per­cent of the people who are getting the same service that they’re already paying for, with their neighbors, doesn’t sit well with me. I un­derstand

the need to bring in revenues, but that one just is not working for me, person­ally,” Gilleland said. Gilleland also noted that a large number of students at Freeman-Centennial School (which serves grades 3 through 6) participate in band practice before school, meaning their parents have to drop them off early on those days.

The School Committee on Wednesday night also added a new $25-per-month band fee, so at least some parents of band students will be paying a new fee for band while also paying an increased fee for a school bus that on some days their kids can’t use to get to school. “I suppose, you know, people are going to think of it on their own so I’ll say it here: If we’re adding a fee for band and the parents are having to drop off their kids two out of the fivedays for practice, yet they’re paying a trans­portation fee, they’re going to think that they should be compensated or that that’s not fair,” Gilleland said. “People are going to think of it on their own, so I’m just bringing that up to let people be aware of that situation.”

Dooley said he is against fees but that the school district needs them to make ends meet, and that at $1 per day (or 50 cents each way), the new $180 bus fee is reasonable. “Unfortunately, we don’t have the money,” Dooley said. Dooley noted that parents don’t have to put their kids on the bus — they can drive their kids to school.

Andrews floated the idea of a smaller in­crease. “Is there any way we can think of softening it just a little bit?” Andrews asked. “… just to kind of help people out a little bit?” But Gilleland said it’s not the figure that bothers him, but rather the unfairness of who pays and who doesn’t. “I don’t think 180 is an unreasonable fee. My point is, it’s an equity thing, with 39 percent of people having to pay when they’re already paying for it in their taxes and their neighbors are getting it already,” Gilleland said. “… If we’re trying to raise revenue, let’s make sure that we’re setting the fees in a way that people will feel like they’re getting a good value for what we’re offering them for that money,” Gilleland said. The $180-per-child bus fee will be payable at the beginning of the school year in Septem­ber.