Central Bucks parents decry plan to reduce busing
Central Bucks School District officials - like others across the region wrestling with gaps in new budgets - have stirred a wave of opposition from parents with a plan to cut bus service for more than 600 students, most from elementary schools.
That would trim about $100,000 a year in gasoline and salary costs, plus the onetime replacement cost of two buses - an additional $160,000. The total would be offset by the expense of making improvements to walking routes and possibly hiring crossing guards.
About 200 people crowded into district headquarters in Doylestown Tuesday night, applauding as parents told the board that expanding the walking zone for children at four elementary schools, a middle school, and two high schools to as much as 1.5 miles was dangerous and, one said, "ludicrous."
"I understand the board's position and the concern to save money where possible," said Claudia Fischer, who has two children at Warwick Elementary School. But "please hear the parents' voices and try to protect our most precious thing - our kids - and continue busing."
Parents of elementary school students recited potential safety problems, said it was wrong to send kids out in all weather toting heavy book bags, and predicted that school parking lots would be clogged with cars dropping off children.
State law says districts do not have to bus children who live within 1.5 miles of a school. District officials said children from seven other elementary schools who live a mile or more from school already walk or are driven by parents.
The proposed changes, Superintendent Robert Laws said Wednesday, would make things more uniform by eliminating walking exceptions granted years ago when some housing developments were being built and sidewalks had not yet gone in.
The Central Bucks district, the largest suburban district in Pennsylvania, has an enrollment of about 20,000, with 23 schools and a budget last year of $276.5 million.
The budget squeeze with which it is grappling is common in local districts, as recession-related cuts in property-tax assessments, reduced income from housing sales, and low-interest earnings crimp revenues while salary and benefit costs and enrollment continue to rise.
School boards are also reluctant to raise taxes. As they approach the final stages of adopting budgets that must be in force by June 30, many districts are cutting staff, considering imposing fees for everything from parking to
That would trim about $100,000 a year in gasoline and salary costs, plus the onetime replacement cost of two buses - an additional $160,000. The total would be offset by the expense of making improvements to walking routes and possibly hiring crossing guards.
About 200 people crowded into district headquarters in Doylestown Tuesday night, applauding as parents told the board that expanding the walking zone for children at four elementary schools, a middle school, and two high schools to as much as 1.5 miles was dangerous and, one said, "ludicrous."
"I understand the board's position and the concern to save money where possible," said Claudia Fischer, who has two children at Warwick Elementary School. But "please hear the parents' voices and try to protect our most precious thing - our kids - and continue busing."
Parents of elementary school students recited potential safety problems, said it was wrong to send kids out in all weather toting heavy book bags, and predicted that school parking lots would be clogged with cars dropping off children.
State law says districts do not have to bus children who live within 1.5 miles of a school. District officials said children from seven other elementary schools who live a mile or more from school already walk or are driven by parents.
The proposed changes, Superintendent Robert Laws said Wednesday, would make things more uniform by eliminating walking exceptions granted years ago when some housing developments were being built and sidewalks had not yet gone in.
The Central Bucks district, the largest suburban district in Pennsylvania, has an enrollment of about 20,000, with 23 schools and a budget last year of $276.5 million.
The budget squeeze with which it is grappling is common in local districts, as recession-related cuts in property-tax assessments, reduced income from housing sales, and low-interest earnings crimp revenues while salary and benefit costs and enrollment continue to rise.
School boards are also reluctant to raise taxes. As they approach the final stages of adopting budgets that must be in force by June 30, many districts are cutting staff, considering imposing fees for everything from parking to