Alpine School District transportation staff outline fleet, staffing and budget challenges ahead of split into three districts

David, East Transportation Hub, told the Alpine School District board at a study session that district transportation will face significant operational and budget choices as the district prepares to split into three new districts (West, Central and South).

David summarized the department's scale and shortfalls: the system runs about 218 routes made up of roughly 1,154 runs, serves more than 6,000 bus stops and transports nearly 18,000 students each weekday; the fleet travels more than 3,000,000 miles annually. He said the district counts about 86,000 students total, of whom roughly 24,000 are eligible for busing; the transportation department currently carries almost 15,000 eligible students and an estimated 3,000 students who are not eligible under state mileage rules, bringing the operational daily total to about 18,000 riders.

Why this matters: the split will require reallocating buses, drivers, mechanics and facilities across three new jurisdictions. David said staff modeled resource splits based on eligible ridership, which they interpret as the state will reimburse only “eligible” routes. "The state reimburses us back $1.07 per eligible mile," David said, and staff "estimate that to be about 80%" of eligible operating costs reimbursed, though the final percentage is set by the state fund allocation each year.

The presentation distilled state eligibility rules used by the department: students living 1.5 miles or more from elementary schools, and 2 miles or more from secondary schools, are eligible for transportation; the department counts runs and routes differently when submitting for reimbursement (stops → runs → routes). For reimbursement the district models a run as eligible if it includes at least 10 eligible regular-education riders (staff said special-education-related criteria differ and may allow smaller counts).

Key resource and budget figures presented

- Fleet and staff: roughly 360 buses (about 30 buses in a long-term repair or "boneyard" status), about 300 drivers, roughly 80 bus attendants, about 16 mechanics and a small…