School board OKs transportation plan, hopes to expand availability

Tehachapi Unified School District struggled to keep up with the demand for transportation services this year, with a 17 percent increase in the number of students asking to ride school buses.

Except for special education, school districts in California are not required to provide transportation.

The district’s transportation program has varied through the years, sometimes requiring parents to pay.

But since the return to in-person instruction in the 2021-2022 school year, families in the district have received home-to-school transportation services at no cost, although it wasn’t always possible to accommodate all families.

A new state law enacted by Assembly Bill 181 requires school districts to develop transportation plans that prioritize planned services for transitional kindergarten, kindergarten and grades 1-6 — and to partner with municipally-owned transit systems to provide services to middle and high school students.

On March 14 the school board approved the transportation plan required by the new law.

Chief Administrator of Business Services Hojat Entezari presented information about the plan to the board.

As noted in the plan, he said, home-to-school transportation for students that live within the district’s more than 500 square mile boundary for all primary and secondary schools requires careful planning and coordination to ensure safe and efficient travel for student riders. In the 2022-2023 school year, he said, the district had an enrollment of about 4,200 students and issued more than 1,400 free bus passes.

The plan approved by the board includes references to state law and district policy.

As stated in the plan, the district is considering expansion of the number of school bus routes currently offered in order to accommodate additional riders and to meet the community demand for increased ridership due to increased transportation costs and varied community needs.

This year, the district implemented late bus routes for secondary-level students who attend after-school tutoring and clubs and will be expanding these offerings to elementary schools in the 2023-2024 school year, in order to increase the instructional school day as part of the state’s Expanded Learning Opportunity initiatives.

The district also provides transportation beyond home-to-school for students that participate in field trips and extra-curricular activities such as sporting, music, or instructional events on a regular basis.

If additional routes are added, according to the plan, the district would be able to “comfortably transport 1,700 students, with full capacity being 2,000 students.”

But in order to add routes, the district will need to recruit additional bus drivers.

Expanding transportation services is heavily dependent on the district’s ability to hire sufficient drivers and maintain an adequate fleet of school buses and vans to meet the demand for ridership, according to the plan.

The new state law comes along with additional funding.

“In a nutshell, it’s going to take us from receiving $586,000 a year for transportation — for a department that spends almost $3 million a year — to (receiving) $1.36 million,” he said.

As part of the 2022-2023 California State Budget, additional funds were allocated on an ongoing basis to reimburse school districts 60 percent of qualifying transportation expenditures if they implement a transportation plan by April 1, 2023, and every April 1 thereafter.

The district is required to provide home-to-school transportation that prioritizes TK-6 grade students, as well as provides access to students identified as socio-economically disadvantaged or with special needs.

Although the law says the district can charge, it doesn’t plan to,

Entezari said.

And Superintendent Stacey Larson-Everson added that although the new funding doesn’t cover all of the district’s transportation expense, by adopting the plan, the district can receive reimbursement funding for part of its operational expense.

Entezari added that one of the challenges for the district, in addition to funding, has been recruiting and retaining bus drivers.

Larson-Everson said the district is fortunate to have Transportation Supervisor Denise Berry, who has been certified to train bus drivers. She added that this is the first year the district has developed a transportation plan and that she expects it will improve and be expanded upon over time.

Read the full plan at TehachapiNews.com.