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Board examines in‑town busing options after members raise equity and attendance concerns
Summary
Board discussion centered on restoring in‑town bus stops for Paola students living less than 2.5 miles from school, with staff outlining contracts and costs and members urging pursuit of a feasible model; staff to explore working with the bus contractor for initial in‑town seats.
The Paola Board of Education debated whether to pursue in‑town bussing to serve students who live less than the district's funded 2.5‑mile threshold, with board members and staff weighing costs, state funding rules and equity concerns.
Speaker 4 presented potential options with a contracted bus company to add in‑town stops and noted the district cannot set differential prices for free and reduced‑lunch students if the district itself directly administers a paid program. "If the school collects and does this on our own, we cannot charge free students," he said, and suggested the vendor administer the service so pricing is consistent across riders.
Speaker 7 gave detailed cost figures to illustrate the scale: about $291.24 per day for a bus and driver (not including fuel), which over roughly 175 school days amounts to about $50,967 per year per route. Speaker 7 added that fuel costs were charged separately to the district and totaled roughly $81,508 last year for regular routes; a bus monitor was cited at about $87.65 per day (~$15,338 per year if full time on a route). "So just the bus, you know, $50,967," Speaker 7 said, adding that those figures do not include all administration or monitor costs.
Board members discussed a phased option: contracting with the bus company to add up to 100 in‑town seats and evaluating interest before expanding service. Some members urged revisiting the state funding standard, noting the current statute funds routes beyond 2.5 miles and that changes at the state level would materially affect district capacity to provide city routes. "If that changed at the state level, every district, including Paola, will get funded differently," Speaker 7 said.
Members did not adopt a new transportation policy at the meeting but directed staff to continue working with the bus contractor to develop a fee structure and operational plan that could be piloted mid‑year if feasible.
Next steps: staff will return with more precise cost modeling, estimates of out‑of‑district families who currently use stops, and a proposed pilot plan with the district's contractor.
