Fill ’er up, with pain

As the summer blankets schools in semi-somnolent repose, superintendents are eyeing the fall warily as spikes in fuel prices affect how much they will be spending on transportation. Fuel, not surprisingly, is the culprit.

In one Connecticut district, the eye-popping school transportation figure is approaching $4 million, up nearly half a million.

According to Charlie Stotz, whose school bus company is based around the hamlet of Valhalla, N.Y., his school district continues to have as many, if not more, trips than it always has. But for Stotz, who buys the fuel, “These prices have affected everybody. The school is trying to get us more money, but so far we haven”™t been given anything extra for the fuel that has gone up 100 percent since last year.”

According to Stotz, this is not the case for most bus companies in Westchester and Fairfield counties. The majority of bus companies in the area have the schools pay for the gas, according to several school bus companies.

Laidlaw Transit, which runs bus companies throughout Fairfield County and White Plains (N.Y.) Bus Company both have their gas purchased for them by the schools they service and therefore leave the education budgets to shoulder the costs.

Busing local students could burn up more of the already-tight school budgets next year, as school officials grapple with a 2008”™s record assault on fuel prices.

“Bottom line, we need $225,000 to offset this,” said Superintendent Ralph Iassogna  of the Trumbull Public Schools.

Trumbull recently decided to switch bus companies for the new school year.

Trumbull picked First Student Bus Company, the lowest bidder of three companies, but still had an 11 percent hike over this year’s transportation costs.

For Trumbull, the yearly cost is projected at $3,871,391 for education transportation, from$3,445,538.

According to William Fahey, general counsel for the New York School Bus Contractors Association, even some bus companies that don”™t pay for gas are losing large profits on mileage between garage and route, a distance generally not covered in a contract.

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Fahey say that contracts can be re-evaluated ever year to compensate for the consumer price index, though with the voracity of increase there has been rebidding for contracts ”¦ and rising prices.

“You can account for 10 to 15 percent increase but you can”™t anticipate a 75 percent increase in about a year,” said Fahey.

Fahey said that legislation for schools is being examined, but the state is not expected to help schools foot those gas bills anytime soon.

Many administrators, faced with budget shortfalls, say they will be trying to avoid cutting back core subject areas, such as math and reading, and turn to slashing enrichment programs and field trips.

This year, many school districts overspent their fuel budgets because the gas prices jumped so quickly. Schools could feel the intense nature of the costs this coming winter when, if trends hold, heating costs will couple with the costs for buses in a sort of fuel-bill perfect storm.

“It”™s killing everybody,” said Steve Schneider director of transportation in Stamford. “Unfortunately the fuel costs fall on us. They”™ve gone up from July ”™06 to $2.28 per gallon, to June ”™07 to $2.47 per gallon and now we”™re at $3.94 per gallon. Money is coming from all aspects of the operation; all the districts are exploring options that were previously untouchable.”

Schneider said the area school districts are looking at the option for students to walk and changing the routes for better efficiency. The bus companies are also not allowing any additional trips.

“Any efficiency we can incur within our systems,” said Schneider. “It”™s unfortunate that it has to take such a big toll of the education environment.”

Many children are being encouraged by their districts to walk, turning their grandparents”™ stories about miles in the snow (“Up hill both ways!”) into a reality for some students.

Companies that manufacture school buses say they are feeling the impact of high gas prices, too, as fewer districts have money left in their transportation budgets to replace older vehicles with new ones.

Schools are not only feeling the budgetary despair in fuel prices, the cost of food, another daily necessity, is hitting the boards of education making it even harder to compensate.