School bus service reduction plan faces tweaks

As parents Tuesday night packed a meeting to protest DeKalb County’s proposal to stop busing students beyond their neighborhood schools, Superintendent Crawford Lewis admitted he will likely have to compromise to see the plan through.

“I don’t think the [school] board will support all parts of the recommendation,” Lewis said. He went on to mention the possibility of only reducing service, with buses picking up children at central locations.

DeKalb is trying to save money as the school system wrestles with funding cuts, soaring fuel prices and declining student enrollment.

Parents at both Tuesday’s meeting at Southwest DeKalb High School night and at a meeting last week suggested that the system should consider using hubs instead of its current practice of door-to-door transportation.

The move to end out-of-zone busing would affect about 5,600 of the district’s 99,600 students, including those who may be enrolled in magnet schools, charter schools and academic theme schools or who transferred from lower-performing campuses.

No other system in Georgia has as wide a range of magnet and choice schools or offers such extensive bus service. Now, officials say they can no longer afford such wide-ranging busing.

System officials expect to lose another $10.5 million in state funds this school year. If that happens, austerity cuts in state education funding by May will have cost DeKalb more than $100 million since 2002.

Educators are scrambling to find ways to close the gap. For example, they say, the busing change alone would save the system $5.9 million a year.

Lewis said last week he also would consider additional measures that could include a one-day-a-month furlough for some employees, four-day workweeks and reducing or closing the system’s pre-kindergarten program.

At the request of the board, Lewis already planned to downsize non-school staff. Some details of those plans are expected to be announced next month.