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Superintendent: providing transport for phased students would cost more than $10 million annually; board urged equity review
Summary
Superintendent Reed recommended the division not fund optional transportation for students choosing to stay at their original schools under the Western High boundary phasing plan, citing an estimated annual cost above $10 million for roughly 57 buses and driver shortages and parking constraints; board members raised equity concerns and asked for more ridership and fuel-cost data.
Superintendent Scott S. Reed told the school board Dec. 4 that providing transportation for students who opt to remain at their original schools under the approved phasing scheme would be expensive and operationally difficult.
Using prior boundary adjustments as models, staff projected that scenario 4 could yield nearly 3,000 students electing to stay, which the division estimated would require roughly 57 additional buses and drivers and carry an annual cost in excess of $10,000,000 (lease-to-own bus costs plus driver salaries and maintenance). Reed cited three primary concerns: the budget impact, nationwide driver shortages (FCPS had 51 driver vacancies at the time of the presentation), and limited bus parking capacity.
"Identifying $10,000,000 to fund this—based on a choice families are making—gives me pause," Reed said, recommending families who choose to remain at their current schools make their own transportation arrangements.
Board members acknowledged the fiscal and logistics realities but several raised equity concerns about making phasing effectively a privilege for families with means. Dr. Anderson asked staff to take "another hard look" and requested more granular data on the number of juniors and seniors affected, current high-school ridership and the fuel costs omitted from the preliminary estimate.
Board members suggested exploring county transit partnerships and student bus-pass programs as partial mitigations for high-school students. Staff agreed to return follow-up data, including ridership numbers and updated cost estimates with fuel added into the analysis.
What’s next: The board adopted the phasing decisions but accepted the superintendent’s recommendation to limit division-funded transportation to routes based on the new boundaries only; staff will provide follow-up analyses on ridership, fuel and potential county partnerships.
