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North Spencer operations director outlines bus fleet, ridership and pressure from recent state law
Summary
Director of operations Todd Wilkerson told the board the district runs 30 daily routes with 36 buses (21 route buses owned, nine contracted), average ridership about 21 per route, and that SEA1-driven property-tax changes reduce operations funding ahead of a summer 2027 bus contract decision.
Todd Wilkerson, the district's director of operations, told the North Spencer County School Corporation board that the district operates 30 daily bus routes, including one special-needs pre-K route and 29 general routes, and currently owns 36 buses.
Wilkerson said 21 route buses are owned by the corporation and nine are provided by contractors. He told the board that manufacturers'listed capacities (78 passengers) assume three students per seat, but the district counts two students per seat for practical planning; most district buses comfortably carry 44'52 students under that two-per-seat assumption. Average ridership across routes is roughly 21 students, Wilkerson said, meaning some routes run well under capacity while others are fuller.
Wilkerson described his route studies: he observed morning and afternoon runs on several days and reviewed timing and ridership to identify short or underutilized routes. He reported typical end-of-day times near 3:39 p.m. for most routes and said two buses ordered last year are expected for delivery in September; those units will be deployed to either evening extracurricular activity (ECA) service or assigned to routes, with older buses rotated to spare status.
Board members and staff discussed the district's 12-year replacement cycle, mileage-based rotation practices and how new Type A (smaller) buses will be phased into regular circulation in the fall. Wilkerson said he plans to finish observations on the remaining routes before recommending wider changes to routing.
Separately, a board speaker noted that SEA1 (enacted summer 2025) raised circuit-breaker thresholds and property-tax caps, increasing the district's anticipated loss in property-tax revenue (the speaker cited roughly $270,000 in circuit-breaker exposure, about $230,000 more than in prior calculations). That reduction affects operations funding, which pays for transportation; administrators said the funding pressures reinforce the need to maximize route efficiency ahead of the 2027 bus contract decision.
The board did not take a final action on routing or the contract during the meeting; administrators said the data collection and route reviews will inform proposals brought forward before the contract decision.
