State's reversal on school busing just latest wrinkle for local districts

<p>Officials in Sonoma County's 40 school districts are sorting through the latest budget wrinkle to come their way — a reversal of a cut to transportation funding but a offsetting decrease in per pupil spending by the state.</p><p>The shift — which represents a wash for the state as a whole — was pushed by lawmakers who said Gov. Jerry Brown's $248 million cut to school transportation for the current school year was wildly unfair to districts with high busing costs.</p><p>The state still will cut school funding by $248 million this year, but SB81 reinstates the money for transportation and then reduces per pupil spending by $42 for all districts. </p><p>“Transportation doesn't affect all districts equally,” said Denise Calvert, deputy superintendent of the Sonoma County Office of Education. “For some of our districts (the cut) was $500 (per pupil) and in others it was zero.”</p><p>Many districts — concerned about the potential for increased absenteeism — were opting to make cuts elsewhere rather than eliminate their busing.</p><p>Still others said districts have little room to be creative in light of $4.8 billion in cuts that will hit K-12 education across the state if voters reject Brown's tax initiative in November.</p><p>Still, the tweak to transportation dollars means $137,000 less in cuts than Petaluma City School was preparing for, said interim Superintendent Steve Bolman.</p><p>“Statewide, it was a break,” he said. “What was happening was some districts were getting penalized huge amounts of dollars because of the amount of transportation they provided,” he said.</p><p>“The administration supports the bill,” State Department of Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer said Friday.</p><p>Still, Brown has eliminated the entire school transportation funding program in his 2012-13 budget proposal unveiled in January.</p><p>Regardless of the change, Windsor Superintendent Tammy Gabel said the district is moving ahead with pursuing cost savings by possibly consolidating or eliminating some routes, shifting to a hub system and enforcing current distance limits.</p><p>The district has no plans to eliminate busing, she said.</p><p>While the most recent change represents a loss for Old Adobe School District in rural Petaluma, superintendent Cindy Pilar remained philosophical.</p><p>“We recognize this is a fair cut to districts across the state,” she said, adding that Old Adobe was never prepared to cut busing despite bracing to lose approximately $60,000 — or about $30 per student.</p><p>In Sonoma Valley, officials were preparing to cut $375,000 with the loss of transportation funding, but the new deal means that cut will be slightly smaller.</p><p>“Now we are looking at $250,000,” said Justin Frese, deputy superintendent.</p><p>Staff writer Kerry Benefield writes an education blog at extracredit.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. She can be reached at 526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com.</p>