Parent Questions to Dr. Varley on Cuts to Subscription Busing

Decision on cuts made by BOE Finance Committee

–Margit Pedraza

On August 3, 2023, I, along with other parents, received an email informing us that subscription busing is being cancelled for CMS, MKM and MP for the upcoming school year.

I was truly disappointed and frustrated by this decision given the added hardship it places on parents especially me as a single mom.

I decided to reach out to Ms. Sheehan, Ms. Varley and the BOE to ask questions about the decision to cancel busing as well as the metrics around it.  I am sharing my email as information for other parents asking the same questions. The decision to cancel subscription busing was made by the Finance committee. I hope parents find this information useful.

Snippet from Email Exchange:

[MP] –Margit Pedraza
[DV]-Dr. Varley

[MP] Please explain how you determined that subscription busing should be eliminated specifically at CMS, MKM and Mountain Park.  (Why these three schools, the metrics used and the model used).

[DV] The subscription bus program was set up to provide a value added service to families when there was a seat available on a bus along an already established route to “purchase” that seat for their child who did not qualify.  For CMS, MP and MKM, there are not seats available on these routes this year.  We are down one route at CMS due to a driver leaving and the MKM and MP students who applied were not along the established route and to change the route would make the bus late for school in the AM and PM.

[MP]Who made the decision to eliminate subscription busing for these schools?  Was it approved by our BOE?

[DV] The finance committee was involved in the decision.

[MP] Please explain what options/alternate solutions were explored to not have to eliminate subscription busing for our students.

[DV] Being down one bus driver creates a difficult situation from the beginning.  Our district drivers are dedicated to doing whatever it takes to make it work.  We have rearranged various routes as well as having drivers take on additional routes, and are utilizing substitute drivers as well as our Transportation Supervisor to cover the routes.  Unfortunately, at CMS there is not a way to get coverage due to the tiering of our routes with other schools in the district.

[MP] How many students from each school were denied subscription bussing?

[DV] 29 at CMS

11 at MKM

1 at MP

[MP] How many students from Hughes and Woodruff will be accommodated for subscription busing?

[DV] 39 from Hughes

26 from Woodruff

We would need to run 2 buses regardless due to the number of students who qualified.

[MP] Is courtesy busing still being offered to CMS, MKM and Mountain Park?  If so, how many courtesy busing students are there at each school?

[DV] This will take some time to pull as we do not note them in the system this way.

[MP] Note: I am not referring to the state mandated law that requires students to live a certain distance from the schools.  I am referring to those students that are being bused for free which live less than 2 miles from the schools.

Full Email Exchange

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