While the wheels on the bus go round and round, the price to run the bus keeps going up and up.

"We're crossing our fingers like everyone else that we budgeted enough," Franklinville Central Superintendent Dennis Johnson said. "Last year, we did anticipate an increase in fuel."

Many school officials echo Mr. Johnson's thoughts, including Hinsdale Superintendent Judi McCarthy, who said her school should be fine on gasoline budget.

"I think we'll be all right this year," Ms. McCarthy said. "We're still very aware of high gas prices."

Hinsdale, like many other schools in the area, has kept relatively the same bus routes as last year, having only to eliminate one due to fuel prices.

"I eliminated one bus run this year, partly because of fuel prices," Hinsdale Transportation Supervisor Jay Ballard said. "It was feasible to eliminate one route. It's saving the school money as far as fuel. It's saving from not having to hire a bus driver. It's helping the school in a couple ways."

This is only the third run Mr. Ballard has eliminated since 1998 when he first started at Hinsdale.

The school operates 14 vehicles and seven buses, Mr. Ballard said. All but two of the buses are filled to capacity, he said, and the other two are 80 to 90 percent full.

Schools get discounted prices from the state to pay for diesel fuel, but the price is still going in the wrong direction, Mr. Ballard said.

"Fuel costs doubled from Sept. 1 to June 30," he said.

On Aug. 26, 2007, it cost Hinsdale $145 to fill up a school bus with diesel fuel. On Aug. 26, 2008, it cost $230, Mr. Ballard said.

"The costs have skyrocketed," Ellicottville Central School Superintendent Mark Ward said. "Isn't it sad to say it's good news when we're at $4 a gallon?"

Mr. Ward said his school, which operates 10 buses - with the longest route an hour long - spent $46,700 on fuel costs in the 2006-07 school year, and spent $77,000 this past year.

"The price was up," Mr. Ward said. "This next year looks to be somewhat similar."

If any school knows about rising diesel costs, it's Pioneer Central. Superintendent Jeffrey Bowen said his school operates 35 buses and averages 1.6 million miles a year.

"It's definitely a large-scale operation," Mr. Bowen said, estimating that 95 percent of students receive school transportation.

Pioneer increased their transportation budget by over four percent, to $2.7 million, for the 2008-09 school year.

High gas prices impact more than the transportation budget, Mr. Bowen said.

"We've been recruiting teachers ... routinely from Buffalo and its suburbs," he said. "They are now thinking twice with the cost of commuting."

The rising costs haven't caused local schools to cut back on field trips yet.

"The board and myself do not want to take those [field trips] away," Mr. Ward said. "Those are opportunities that'll never come back. Philosophically, we only have these children one time. We're going to try our best to afford them those."

Hinsdale has also managed to avoid cutting back on field trips.

"So far, we're not cutting down on any [field trips]," Ms. McCarthy said. "Those are pretty valuable. We're going to try and save those."

Alfred-Almond Superintendent Richard Nicol said his school hasn't necessarily cut back on field trips, but it is still a very real possibility.

"We have not made any blanket decisions," Mr. Nicol said. "We look at each trip request individually and see if it's worth the cost. We're going to look at making them as cost-effective as possible."

The Olean City School District hasn't felt the high gas price burden too much, Superintendent Dr. Colleen Taggerty said.

"As of this moment, we're not actually feeling too much of a crunch," she said. "We may begin to feel it. It could change depending on what happens with gas prices."

Although the Olean City School District has a larger student population than many other schools in the area, they benefit from having students walk to school.

"We do not have a lot of buses," Dr. Taggerty said. "Many of our children walk."

Over 300 of the 2,313 students walk to school, Dr. Taggerty said.

Unlike Olean, Alfred-Almond relies heavily on buses, according to Mr. Nicol.

"We bus 99 percent of kids," Mr. Nicol said. "There's only a couple of families within safe walking distance of the school. We typically use 17,000 gallons of diesel fuel per year. We use 3 to 4,000 gallons of gasoline.

"It's fairly expensive for us. With those costs, it's going to make us look very carefully at trying to stay in the budget and not let it affect other areas of the school."

One way the school is saving money on fuel is by combining athletic trips and having the varsity and junior varsity using the same bus. Other schools, including Hinsdale, are doing the same.

"With athletics, we're trying to group together our trips," Ms. McCarthy said. "If we're taking one team, we're trying to take a couple of teams. We're trying to scrimp and save there."

Wellsville Central School is holding a meeting in September to examine ways to use less fuel.

"[High diesel prices] have caused us to be looking at conservation efforts," Superintendent Dr. Byron Chandler said. "We'll have a meeting in September to look at various ways to conserve fuel."

Two ideas the school is considering are reducing how far students travel for field trips and using the school's distance learning center more.

"There's a number of things we're looking at," Dr. Chandler said. "We can consider limiting the distance we go. We have distance learning. We can do virtual field trips."

Dr. Chandler said Wellsville will look at every possible solution.

"We're not going to leave any stone unturned as we look for ways to reduce energy use," he said.

Mr. Bowen agreed with Dr. Chandler.

"Everyone is naturally being more cautious," Mr. Bowen said.

Rising diesel prices, however, are something schools can't avoid due to the necessities of travel, Mr. Bowen said.

"So much of what we do with transportation is essential," he said. "If we can't get kids to and from school, we're in big trouble."

�® Contact reporter Tyler Briggs at tbriggs@oleantimesherald.com

printer friendly version

e-mail this story

Reader Comments

There are No comments posted. comments to this story.
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of bradfordera.com.

Submit a Comment

We encourage your feedback and dialog, all comments will be reviewed by our Web staff before appearing on the Web site.