PLACENTIA : Schools to Charge for Use of Buses

High school students will be charged fees for transportation to extracurricular activities under a plan approved this week by trustees of the Placentia-Linda Unified School District.

Board members voted unanimously Tuesday to begin charging between $30 and $90 a year to bus students to after-school activities such as band concerts, football games and tennis matches.

Under the plan, parents will have the option of providing their own transportation for their children. The district will waive the fees for students from low-income families who are unable to afford the additional cost.

School officials said they have been forced to find new ways to fund the cost of transporting students because of cutbacks in state education funding. It costs about $300,000 a year to operate the after-school buses, officials said.

The district thus far has no plans to go beyond the extracurricular fees and charge students for riding the bus to school, district officials said. This fall, the Saddleback Valley Unified and Los Alamitos Unified school districts will charge students for regular school bus service.

District officials are uncertain whether the fees will pay the full cost of running the buses. The entire fee will be collected when students register for after-school activities.