Mailbag: Supr. Heidi Carvin responds to Joan's letter on transportation initiative

Joan,

We have explored most of these options with the bus company and their response to us is that there would not be much of a cost savings and as you indicate it would create other difficulties for them.



I have asked Deb Olsen to get us more specific information on the costs of parent contracst. This is most typically done when a child attends a parochial school out of the district and we need to transport the child. The reason we haven’t explored it here is that if all parents don’t agree to transport their children, then we still have to provide transportation even if it is only one child. Since even if they agree, a parent could change their mind at any time, we can’t build that into our budget assumptions.



In days gone by, parents might have worked out some kind of carpool, but with the liability issues around that, and with the route taking an hour every day, I would be reluctant to rely on this.



I am not sure why you would like Headstart involved. They don’t dismiss until 1:00 after their children have lunch. They may also have liability issues transporting students other than their own.



I am certainly not opposed to a couple meeting to explore this further or just to set people’s minds to rest, but I do believe we have considered these options. We don’t like to spend any more on non-instruction related costs than is absolutely necessary.



Heidi J. Carvin