ORANGE : Vote on School Bus Rider Fees Delayed

Trustees have deferred a decision on whether to raise fees for riders of the aging bus fleet that serves the Orange Unified School District, despite a plea from the district’s teachers union to find a way to raise money for the financially strapped district.

District finance officials recommended that annual fees for each child riding the bus be raised from $180 to $225, beginning July, 1995. For families with more than one child, fees would be reduced proportionately.

Officials also suggested that trustees eliminate funding of transportation to sporting events and consider contracting out the entire bus service to a private company.

Together, the proposals would save the district more than $250,000. The district now spends more than $1.2 million to bus about 4,000 students who make up 10% to 15% of the school population.

But at Thursday’s meeting, school board members decided to wait until Sept. 22, noting that they were seeing the material for the first time.

A survey to determine reaction to changes in bus service was sent to 22,000

parents in the spring, and 1,300 responded, Supt. Robert L. French told the board. The response to the idea of eliminating free transportation to athletic events was split about evenly between supporters and opponents.

School board member Bill Lewis, whose three children ride the school buses, said the district might have received different responses if it had asked different questions. “If you ask parents, ‘Do you want to lose microscopes or books so someone else’s kid can take the bus?’ you’d get a different response,” he said.

Another transportation problem looming is the advanced age of the 78-bus fleet, which has an average age of 18 years.

David Reger, president of the teachers union, reminded the board that district teachers have the second-lowest average pay in the county. “There is so much money being lost,” he said, urging them to raise the fees. “You have got to quit playing politics with some of these issues.”