Elkhorn students peer out from their school bus after school on Monday. Elkhorn may eliminate school bus transportation. (Dan Evans/News-Sentinel)

Lodi Unified may drop bus service to Elkhorn School

Only 59 Elkhorn Elementary families were interested in paying a reduced fee for one-way bus service, which means Lodi Unified may eliminate the route altogether.

The district needed 200 families to pay for the service and to break even for the cost of gas and drivers, said Carlos Garcia, the district's transportation director.

It is now up to district officials to decide whether to discontinue the student transportation, which was originally canceled last spring. Using buses received a slight reprieve when parents said they were willing to cover a portion of the district's cost, but not enough signed up.

By Friday, a final decision will be made, to either give parents extra time to pay, set up yet another fee structure or scrap bus service all together. Garcia said that decision would be made by someone above his position, but district administrators could not be reached for comment late Monday afternoon because they were in a closed-session meeting.

At least 200 students' parents had to commit to the reduced cost — the original price tag was $720 for the school year for transportation in both directions — by Aug. 15, although some parents believed their deadline to pay was this Friday.

At the beginning of this school year, district officials asked parents to pay $720 per child for a pay-to-ride bus service. But with no payment plans in place, coming up with the money the first week school started proved to be a burden for families, especially those with more than one child.

If the district does cut the bus service to Elkhorn, it will refund the money to parents who paid the fee.

Parent Shari Burnett organized meetings with parents and district officials after receiving a letter last month warning of the transportation fee. At the end of last school year, the school board approved cutting the service completely.

Since then, some families have pulled out of the school altogether, others have turned to carpooling to get their students to and from the Stockton school. Although it is located in Stockton, it is part of the Lodi Unified School District and students attend from as far away as Acampo and Lockeford.

Elkhorn School is the district's Gifted and Talented Education campus, serving fourth through eighth-graders. It is located on Davis Road, a country road that has proven to be a safety hazard for parents dropping and picking their children up. Putting more on buses would be safer, according to some parents.

After cutting service in half, officials hoped that at least a couple hundred students would need transportation after school since their parents likely work full time and can't take off in the middle of the day. That cost was to only be $236 for the school year. But Burnett suspects the parents have already committed to carpools for both directions, or weren't clear on the final deadline to pay.

"Everyone involved has tried to find a solution," Elkhorn principal Scott McGregor said. "There has been a lot of partnership, and time will tell if (transportation service) happens or not."

Burnett understands budget cuts are sometimes necessary, but said parents last spring were more worried about the entire school being closed than cuts to the bus system. Like other parents, she thought there still might be money from the state to save Elkhorn's buses.

"It would have been helpful, I believe, to have a dialogue from the get-go," she said of the anticipated cuts.

She added that parents could have come up with other options sooner, including carpooling schedules or recommending changes to the current bus stops.

That's exactly what they did. The second day of school, Burnett and a group of parents met with Garcia, the district's transportation director, and came up with their own plan. Basically, they recommended eliminating the furthest rural bus stop in the Tokay Colony area outside of Lockeford and consolidating other stops to create a more direct path to Elkhorn. Basically, the plan reduced mileage and therefore gas costs.

Parents recently received another letter with the new proposed cost to parents, but the district eliminated all morning bus service.

"My concern is there are a lot of families who use the bus on free and reduced lunches," Burnett said. "I'm afraid they don't know that if not enough people pay, that transportation will go away."

McGregor said he believes all parents are aware of the deadlines and he plans to do his best to communicate any possible changes to the current system.

Carlos said if the bus service is canceled altogether, parents would be notified with at least a one-week grace period.

LUSD is not the only local district facing transportation budget cuts. In Galt, parents whose high school students ride the bus are now charged $1 per way, per day.

Elkhorn parent Suzanne Schreiner already paid the $720 fee for this school year with hopes of securing bus service both ways. She is thankful her son, Bryson, is an eighth-grader and has started his last year at Elkhorn.

"Those with more than one child, or a 4th grader, have more to worry about," she said. "For us, we will either try to get in a carpool or have my oldest drop him off on his way to Delta (College). We will make it work."

Contact reporter Jennifer Bonnett at jenniferb@lodinews.com.