Sisters school bus fuel costs soar

Spikes in diesel prices have hit the Sisters Schools.

A year ago in April 2007 the district paid $2.47 for diesel, according to Angi Gardinier, Transportation Supervisor with the school district. In April 2008, that jumped to $3.81 per gallon.

In budgeting for next year, Gardinier said she added another 30 percent, pushing the anticipated total fuel cost to $91,283 from this year's $70,218. She does not know if that will be enough.

"I just looked at things and thought that was a reasonable amount," she said.

But recent fuel price increases have seemed anything but reasonable. The retail price for diesel recently was $4.79 a gallon and $5 per gallon is anticipated by some before the end of the summer.

Gardinier started driving a school bus in Sisters 24 years ago, and became transportation supervisor five years ago.

The Sisters School District has 13 buses, all using diesel. It is state law that school districts provide transportation for students. There are eight regular routes, and one special route, three routes for kindergarten in midday, two special-needs routes to Redmond and one special-needs route to Bend.

Gardinier says the district buys fuel from Pacific Pride at the Pumphouse in Sisters. Prices can change day to day. The school district does not pay taxes for routes that have students on board. Taxes are paid on fuel used for training purposes and when students are not on the bus.

"We use the little bus, (number 10) and a little white Honda car for those routes (with few students) when we can," Gardinier said. "If it is not used, it is because two programs (that could use the smaller vehicle) are going at the same time."

There are nine regular route drivers.

Gardinier said she has looked at using biodiesel, "but it is kind of expensive."

Gardinier said she uses a dollar amount of about $2.05 per mile as total cost for transportation: "This is what we have come up with, based on a formula that includes what we do to the buses mechanically and fuel wise."

The school district's budget for transportation next year is actually less than this year. But that is because Superintendent Elaine Drakulich has directed staff to move salaries for driving to cocurricular events such as athletic games and put those into cocurricular budgets.

Drakulich was out of state for her son's wedding as this story was written and could not be reached for comment.

Business Manager Sandy Tartaglia said that she had taken about $50,000 out of the regular transportation budget for next year in salaries and assigned that amount to the cocurricular budgets. This brought next year's transportation budget down to about $585,301 from this year's budget of $598,942, despite the $21,000 anticipated increase in fuel costs.

Through April this school year, the district had spent $542,936, but Gardinier cautioned that May is an expensive month for transportation.

Tartaglia said she did not assign fuel costs to the individual cocurricular programs "... because we did not have the actual mileage number."

Those numbers are being assembled at the direction of Superintendent Drakulich.

Last year, the football program racked up 4,214 miles, Gardinier said. Boys basketball was 3,156 miles, girls basketball 2,121. The volleyball teams traveled 3,100 and cross country 2,213.

"Cross country is a non-funded sport, so I bill them for those miles at $2.05 per mile," Gardinier said.

"Funded" sports, such as football, volleyball and boys and girls basketball, are not billed for transportation, she said. "Unfunded" means that parents, students or donations provide funding for the activity.

Some sports are still underway, such as baseball, softball and track, so mileage for those sports has not been totalled, though "we document each trip," Gardinier said.

Total miles last year for the district were 172,932.

"I don't know about this year yet," Gardinier said. "I would suspect we are going to be higher."

The State of Oregon reimburses the district 70 percent for regular miles. Gardinier said that 34,665 miles "were sports miles and non-reimbursed."

The district fills out a number of forms that are submitted to the state for reimbursement. Gardinier said that the forms require information on how many students are in each grade, how many buses the district has, etc.

Field trips are reimbursed and may also eventually come out of a separate fund than regular transportation. Field trips are approved by principals at the building level, Gardinier said.