Schools feel strain of gas prices

School districts looking at how to save money, re-budget transportation

COLUMBIA BASIN — It has only been a week into the new school year and bus driver Debra Greeno is wary about what lies ahead for public school transportation.

Greeno's last stop at the gas pumps cost $115 to fill a 38-gallon tank.

Parked behind Greeno in another bus waiting outside Frontier Middle School Wednesday afternoon, is bus driver Dan Cooper filled up for $133.

And then there are always extra bus runs for after school programs.

"I just don't think it should run," Greeno said of after-school programs. "I don't think it's efficient."

School athletic departments that have had sports matches planned up to two years in advance are also making adjustments.

For students at Moses Lake High School, that may mean sharing a bus with other sports teams at the high school and taking alternate vehicles such as a van or car.

"As long as we're in the league, we're gonna go on the road and play those games," said MLHS Athletic Director Loren Sandhop.

Already, one sports team match in the Ephrata School District has been canceled due to the high gas prices, said ESD Superintendent Jerry Simon.

The ESD runs 17 routes a day and combining routes is not an option for the district, already strapped for space on its existing bus runs.

"We're at a point where we can't combine our routes," Simon said.

Simon estimates the district will spend $70,000 more in fuel costs than initially expected.

While gas prices remain a concern, transportation director John Harris with the Quincy School District said cutting back on driver training for new and returning drivers is not an option.

"We're not gonna cut back from anything that takes away from safety," Harris said.

According to John Eschenbacher, transportation manager with the MLSD, that's roughly $600 a day more in fuel costs for the district.

As millions of school children have already headed back for another school year, finding ways to stay within budget and provide regular bus routes and those for extracurricular activities is a problem being faced by most school districts.

The MLSD has 45 routes and on average burns 100,000 gallons of fuel a year to run a fleet, Eschenbacher said.

Having to cut back on refresher driving courses for new and returning bus drivers has been one way Eschenbacher has tried to curb back the cost reminding drivers not to let buses idle during bus runs.

"We have to come up with something," he said.

As of yet, no final decisions have been made to combine bus routes or make changes to school pick up/drop offs or after school program transportation, but discussions are planned to see what can be done to alleviate the costs in a conservative budget year due to a $2.5 million increase in fringe benefit costs.

The latest figures from the U.S. government Energy Information Administration as of Sept. 5 show gas prices on the West Coast at an average of $3.02 for gasoline and $3.14 for diesel.

Some of the highest figures reported by the EIA can be found in the Central Atlantic states at $3.29 for gasoline, followed by the New England area at $3.22 and California with $3.25 for diesel.

"We knew there was going to be an increase but we didn't think it was going to be as dramatic of an increase as it has been," said Monte Redal, assistant superintendent of business and operations with the MLSD.

Redal said the district does have between a $2.5 and $3 million dollar reserve, but that the district can only observe so much of the fuel cost increase from that.

A letter has already been sent out to school principals in the MLSD about looking at other options for extracurricular programs that require additional transportation such as offering those programs on the same day rather than several times during the week.

"We're either going to have to eat that cost from our reserve or make adjustments where we can without affecting student services," Redal said.