Courtesy busing may be returned

Howell Township Council members took turns last week blasting the Howell K-8 School District Board of Education for its decision not to include courtesy busing in the 2010-11 school year budget.

However, by the end of this week courtesy busing could be back in the school district’s budget.

“I hope the public sees the [school] administration is the body that has lost credibility,” Councilwoman Pauline Smith said at the July 13 Howell Township Council meeting. “They have with me and I hope with everybody else. They are sitting on their laurels, so to speak, and we are expected to pay for it.”

Courtesy busing had previously been provided to students who live close to the school they attend. That money was never included in the school district’s budget for the upcoming year.

While the move saved the school district about $250,000, it could have ended up costing the township nearly four times as much in order to ensure the safety of the children who could be required to walk to school.

Because state law requires municipalities (not school districts) to pay for the cost of school crossing guards and their training, the school board’s decision could have added another $865,000 to the township’s budget and could have required property owners to come up with that funding.

However, with the high cost of providing crossing guards staring them in the face, the council members took action that could permit the school board to reinstate busing for all students.

A decision by the board to reinstate courtesy busing could have been made at a meeting scheduled for July 21. The meeting was held after this edition of the Tri-Town News went to press.

Township Council members to a person said Howell’s school board members knew perfectly well when they chose not to include money for courtesy busing in the 2010-11 budget that the decision would end up costing Howell taxpayers more in the end.

“Courtesy busing was never going to go away, ever, because the school board knew that if they pulled it out of their budget, we have no choice but to stick it in ours,” an angry Deputy Mayor Angela Dalton said.

“I didn’t expect this,” Dalton said of the board’s decision to eliminate courtesy busing. “It’s a really sad attempt to pull one over on the people of Howell.”

But Howell Superintendent of Schools Enid Golden said on July 19 that courtesy busing was out of the board’s budget since the spending plan was first presented to the public months ago.

“It’s always been out,” she said.

Golden also said that she and board members were as shocked as the council members were to learn the cost of providing crossing guards.

“We knew [the township] had to put in crossing guards, but never in a million years did we think that number would be higher than the cost of courtesy busing,” Golden said. “We are very shocked to hear that.”

Howell Police Chief Ronald T. Carter in a July 13 memo offered two options to Township Manager Helene Schlegel for providing and paying for crossing guards in 2010-11.

The first option, which Carter recommended, would provide a crossing guard at any intersection where a child would have to cross a street to get to school. The price tag for the first option totals $865,216, which includes $705,129 for salaries for 137 guards, $132,687 for mandated training and $27,400 for mandated uniforms, according to the memo.

The first option calls for 107 regular crossing guards and an additional 30 positions as substitute guards.

The second option, which the chief did not recommend, would provide a crossing guard only at major intersections, for a total cost of $226,438, which includes salaries, training and uniforms for 18 regular guards and six substitutes.

Council members unanimously passed a resolution at their July 13 meeting reducing the $1.9 million cut they made in May to the defeated $66.2 million school tax levy. The council has now agreed to a reduction in the tax levy of $1.7 million.

In effect, the council told the K-8 school board it may collect $64.5 million from local taxpayers in 2010-11, instead of the previously certified tax levy amount of $64.3 million.

Eliminating courtesy busing “was a way to circumvent the $1.9 million in cuts,” Councilman William Gotto said. “We are now being forced to reduce that to $1.7 million and change. It’s disgusting.”

By approving a higher tax levy for 2010- 11 than what had been agreed to in May, the council was granting the school board the ability to put $200,000 toward reinstating courtesy busing if the board chooses to do so.

The board had a meeting scheduled for July 21. Golden said on July 19 that she planned to “strongly recommend” the board agree to the recertification of the tax levy and to use the extra money for courtesy busing.

Golden also said she did not understand why council members continue to say the school district administration had not given anything back to cut costs.

“We cut over 22 percent of the administrative staff,” she said. “We cut nine administrative positions. The administration early on did a wage freeze. So I’m kind of flabbergasted. I hear them keep repeating there were no administrative cuts, no givebacks.”

“I am very upset about this” courtesy busing situation, Mayor Robert F. Walsh said at the July 13 council meeting. “The highly educated people on the board and in the administration, they knew it was just shifting money over to the taxpayers. It wasn’t a cost-cutting measure.”

Walsh also questioned why school administration and employees could not take every other Friday as a furlough day, like township employees are doing.

Furlough days are not an option for the administration or secretarial staff, Golden said.

“We can’t operate like that,” she said.

School district offices are closed every Friday this summer to save money on energy costs, but school employees make up the difference in hours during the four-day work week, Golden said.

Walsh said he had requested information from school officials about the number of sick days the district had bought back from employees and was still waiting for the numbers.

“I still haven’t received that information,” the mayor said. “We asked for it six weeks ago. If we don’t get the information, I’d like to see the township attorney go into court to get the information.”

Gotto said he would demand to know which county and state officials signed off on the board’s 2010-11 budget, a plan that did not include courtesy busing.

“I want to know every person who reviewed this budget at the county and state level,” he said. “They are playing with children’s safety as a bargaining chip. Here we are months later, still playing this Mickey Mouse guessing game. This is ridiculous.”

Courtesy busing refers to transportation that is provided by a school district to students who according to state law do not have to be bused to school.

The state Department of Education requires school districts to provide transportation for elementary school students who live beyond 2 miles from their school and busing for high school students who live beyond 2.5 miles from their school.

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