For the third year in a row, the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District is trimming bus routes to save money. Officials say it’s about doing more with less — all while doing their best to make sure students don’t get left behind.
Melody Best used to drive one of the Kenai Peninsula’s dozens of school buses, dodging moose and negotiating icy streets. These days, she’s navigating a different series of obstacles.
“I have to look at the numbers, I have to look at the kid counts for the buses, I have to look at the time that we have allotted on those buses and if we have enough time on other buses, to then consolidate those in and enough room for those kids,” she said.
Best is the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District’s transportation supervisor. This time of year, that means she’s the bus route planner-in-chief. She recently rolled out the district’s new plan for the school year that starts Aug. 21.
For the third year in a row, that plan includes route cuts. This year, the cuts impact schools in Soldotna and in Kasilof. So, Best is left to make some hard choices.
“So unfortunately, it's our outlying schools – Nikiski, Tustumena and Sterling, where our least amount in numbers are on the buses — those are the primary areas that I'm gonna look to to cut first,” she said.
This year, the cuts impact six schools on the central peninsula: Soldotna Elementary School, Soldotna Montessori Charter School, Tustumena Elementary School, Skyview Middle School, River City Academy and Soldotna High School. KPBSD has a full list of affected routes at its website.
Best has been working on the district’s bus plan since Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed the state’s budget on June 28. This year, the state budget included $7.3 million in one-time money for student transportation at schools across the state. Of that, nearly three quarters of a million dollars about $720,000 is expected to go to KPBSD. And clearly, says district planning and operations director Kevin Lyon, that’s good news.
“That there was any increase this last year in the thing is amazing, because it hasn't happened since 2015,” he said. “So I mean, you know, any increase is better than no increase.”
But, it’s not enough to keep all of Kenai’s buses running. Mostly because of inflation.
Back in 2017, the district entered into a contract with its school bus provider that runs through 2027. And unlike state funding for school buses, the contract is tied to a widely used measure of inflation — Anchorage’s consumer price index.
The contract includes a base rate for fuel at $2.50 per gallon. If gas costs more than that, the district has to pay the difference. That amount, called the fuel surcharge, averages $30,000 per month.
State funding, on the other hand, is tied to student enrollment.
But even if they’re picking up fewer students, Lyon says buses rolling across the sprawling Kenai Peninsula Borough School District still burn about the same amount of gas.
“When we have less students, it doesn't reduce the square miles that we have to cover,” he said.
And what that means is there isn’t enough money for the district to run as many buses. Even with more than $700,000 more in funding.
“The one-time funding drove more than — or, the inflation was more than that component,” Lyon said.
In years where state money hasn’t covered the district’s total transportation budget, the school district uses its general fund to make up the difference. This year, Lyon said the school district is chipping in about half a million dollars for busing.
“Most districts, including ours, supplements the transportation funding to do that, but you know, each year as the budget gets tighter and one-time funding happens, it's a bigger stretch, and there's less revenue or less fund balance to cover that,” she said.
So, to save money, the district is cutting two school buses from its fleet. Lyon says the move will save about $250,000.
Best, the bus route planner, says she tries to minimize the impact to students when deciding which routes to cut. That strategy, though, means fewer buses for Nikiski, Tustumena and Sterling this year.
“It’s the least amount of impact, and if I can utilize the other buses in that area, then I can still offer the service without having to not offer services and certain spots,” she said.
For example, the Crooked Creek stop is being eliminated this year because it serves the least amount of students. Students who used that stop last year must now travel to the Johnson Lake stop. Best says it’s not as convenient, but means students don’t lose the opportunity to ride the bus altogether.
The district says it’s also adjusting school dismissal times to make bus routes as efficient and effective as possible.
Ultimately, Lyon emphasized that the district is thankful for this year’s one-time money, even if it doesn’t cover the full gap. He and Best say the district is working to tell the parents and kids affected by the cuts that the bus they used to ride might not be coming back.
Full descriptions of the route changes being implemented this year, as well as school bus timetables, are available on KPBSD’s student transportation webpage.
