Orland School District 135 appears to have largely quelled the furor over its new bus company’s rough start to the school year that drew hundreds of complaints of late, lost and no-show bus drivers.
No parent spoke about the issue during this week’s school board meeting, and as of Tuesday the district’s former bus company took over 30 of the most problematic routes. A complaint form on the district’s website drew just a few submissions Monday, down from about 100 daily during the first two weeks of school.
“We’ve had only six to eight buses that we continue to address,” District 135 Superintendent Janet Stutz said.
Board President Joe La Margo said Positive Connections, which won the $6 million busing contract with a low bid last spring, has not fought the board’s decision to have its former provider, American School Bus Co., handle 30 of about 400 total daily routes.
La Margo said the board plans to thank teachers who have ridden Positive Connections buses since the late August start of school to document problems such as late pickups, missed stops and erratic driving.
On another issue, the school board plans to vote Sept. 28 on the budget for the current school year. No audience member spoke Monday night during a hearing on the spending plan, but La Margo took the unusual step of allowing one more opportunity for input.
As first presented in July, the nearly $71 million operating budget would have dropped the district’s financial reserves from about $35 million to $30.5 million. That would leave the district’s four funds — education, operations, transportation and working cash — with a balance equal to 43 percent of annual spending, or below the 45 percent floor that the board established two years ago.
La Margo insisted that would not happen, and the revised budget that Finance Director Carl Forn presented Monday night showed the reserves finishing about $5.5 million healthier than initial projections. That would mean a reserve level of 49.8 percent.
“We’re living within our fund balance policy,” La Margo said. “And I think the temperature of this board is that we’re going to keep the (property tax) levy flat again for this upcoming year.”
Forn said at least $2 million of the increase in the reserves reflects rosier projections that the deficit-ridden state won’t be as stingy with school funding as it was last school year.
“That’s what we’re counting on,” La Margo said.
Another $1.5 million is being shifted from District 135’s leased technology fund to make up for operating dollars that were used to purchase student computers last year, Forn said.
The revised spending plan, which will run through June 30, will be posted on the district’s website. The state gives school districts until Sept. 30 to approve a budget. A decision on whether to raise the tax levy, the amount the district intends to raise via the property tax, typically comes in December.
The school board also met Monday night in closed session to discuss continued negotiations on a new teacher contract. The old pact expired in July.
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“We’re confident that we’ll reach an agreement,” La Margo said.
Patrick Guinane is a freelance reporter.