Maureen Sabolinski - Central Office had only received one call about cross walks not being painted. They referred the call to the Town Administrator. Most of the calls to the schools were minor and overall this was one of the best openings.
If you hear of problems, please let us know. One crowded bus so far, at Annie Sullivan that will be addressed tomorrow.
Amount of transaction in the last couple of days has been busy with new enrollments.
Will need to provide an FY 09 bus update later. The most recent registrations have not yet been processed into the system to provide some output and look at what the impact would be.
Making bus adjustments, adding some spots for where folks moved into the area over the summer.
One of the most striking numbers is that what we budget for transportation is not what it costs. There is a gap for actual cost of transportation and what we budget.
Miriam Goodman:
Not all late enrollments are going to be pay-to-ride
Explains that some of the pay-to-ride money received in June was booked into FY 08. It is properly accounted for but will help to explain why the top line won't balance to the bottom line.
What extraordinary expenses can we face? How do we forecast that? Loss of power, i.e. Kennedy has experienced that. Those are generally separate charges for additional expenses. Holmes has been good and not charged in all instances.
Cora:
Fuel escalation?
Miriam:
First year of new contract. Only eight payments against the total seen.
Ed:
Contract started in 06-07 school year with options to extend. What was the price?
Miriam:
The fuel escalation does both ways, up and down. It is possible that we will see some decrease with the recent decreases. I would be happy if we don't have to pay that and I am sure you would be also. Would need to renew sometime before 2010.
Ed:
Clarification on which students go into which category? By virtue of who we have to pay for, where would we see them?
Miriam:
This is only pay-to-ride students. Students who are already riding are not included in this.
Maureen:
We can try to include the full ridership numbers in the next update.
Ed:
Shortfall of revenue to cost increasing each year.
Maureen:
Choice to cut other areas of the budget to subsidize this less or to increase the pay-to-ride to be more self-sufficient. No way to adjust re-routing to reduce buses. Could look at the start time to adjust as most high schools are not bus eligible but are pay-to-ride. Changing the start time has not been a palatable solution.
Ed:
Thanks for taking care of the Lincoln/Maple bend in the route.
Matt:
Can we ask the advertising subcommittee to look at the advertising option on the Holmes buses.
Ed:
We can add that to our agenda.
Jeff:
We had looked at funding the late bus, do we have an update?
Wayne:
The projections made in prior meetings were optimistic. The fuel escalation costs have increased. Due to some other factors, four in total. It would be unwise financially to do so (i.e. continue the late bus).
Ed:
All the parents I have talked with were glad to have saved to the late bus, to do otherwise now would not be good. I would strongly suggest to the committee to direct the administration to reconsider.
Cora:
Clubs start in Sep not Oct. I can't see keeping it considering the other reductions we have made.
Maureen:
We looked at that and the fee could be upwards of $300/student.
Wayne:
GATRA can provide some service to the high school and to those middle school students who walk over, at $.50 per student.
Ed:
Given the amount of adjustments we have made with the budget, moving funds around to balance, I can't see that we can't find something to continue this.
Jeff:
We had a long discussion on the budget subcommittee. We have some additional expenses coming at us, special education ($100,000 just for the transportation, doesn't include the actual special ed expense).
I would love to have it stay. The message was clear that the override failure would lead to this.
Ed:
It wasn't only parents that voted in the override. They would thank you for saving the late bus. It is not that we can't fund the clubs. It is just for the few tens of thousands that we should be able to fund this.
Jeff:
I hear you. If we don't identify this cut, then we would have to identify another cut to fund the late bus. I appreciate the need for the late bus. It is not something we can afford. Over 40 teachers, class sizes increased, how many over 30 per class.
Sue:
There has been sensitivity to the increase of the $100 fee. This is a difficult descision.
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