Over the next two weeks, the state Department of Education will search for ways to tackle a $16 million shortfall for student transportation without making big cuts to service.
Schools Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi said all potential solutions are being considered but noted that the range of options is not broad.
"Now the hard work begins," she said Tuesday after briefing Board of Education members on the scale of the funding issue. "We’re going to try to minimize the impact on students overall."
She said the department is negotiating with bus contractors to try to reduce costs and is trying to figure out whether funds from other programs can be shifted to student transportation.
Cutting routes is a last resort, the DOE said, but will have to be considered.
In looking at which routes could be eliminated, the department said it will conduct an analysis to determine what the cuts would mean for everything from student safety to absenteeism.
Officials will also study which routes are not widely used, and in which communities students have transportation alternatives.
"We have a $16 million problem," said Board of Education Chairman Don Horner at the BOE’s Finance and Infrastructure Committee meeting Tuesday.
He added, "I’m reasonably confident that we’re going to try to find solutions."
Lawmakers included $25 million for student transportation in the supplemental budget bill for next fiscal year, $17 million shy of what the Department of Education said it needed to preserve general-education school bus services statewide.
The DOE says it has $1 million from a bus fare revolving fund that will be carried over to the new school year, so that reduces the transportation shortfall to $16 million.
Funding for student transportation, a major price tag for the department, became a contentious issue at the Legislature this session as lawmakers raised concerns about the rising cost of busing kids to school.
In recent weeks, lawmakers also blasted the department for warning parents that a multimillion-dollar shortfall could result in significant cuts to bus service.
DOE officials previously said that if the department were to get a $23 million legislative appropriation, school bus service would be cut to about 25,000 students — 71 percent of regular-education students who ride the bus. No services for special-education students would be eliminated.
DOE officials didn’t focus on talk of bus service elimination Tuesday, and instead said cutting routes would be one of several options considered.
The department plans to return to the BOE committee May 15 to discuss its plan for covering the shortfall.
About 39,000 regular-education students statewide catch a school bus on one of 959 routes statewide. Additionally, mandated curb-to-curb service is provided free to about 4,000 special-education students.
The price tag for student transportation has tripled in the past decade to $76 million in fiscal year 2012.
In addition to the $25 million appropriated in the supplemental budget bill, lawmakers previously gave the department $28 million to cover costs for special-education student transportation for next school year. The department also must cover administrative costs associated with operating school buses.
