At a time when financially strapped school districts are trying to cut costs, the image of an almost-riderless school bus returning home from an out-of-town basketball game is hard to swallow for school administrators.
That’s part of the reason why traditional bus rides to school sports events might become less of a tradition in the future.
“We’ll have a busload of kids going down to (Hardin) Calhoun for a basketball game on a snowy night,” said Phil Trapani, the principal at Carrollton High School. “Their parents get to the game later, and a lot of the kids go home with their parents.
“So when the bus gets back here, you might have the driver, the coach and a couple of players on it. That’s something you have to look at and say, ‘Are we wasting money here?’”
Carrollton is looking at alternatives that could reduce transportation costs for its athletic teams and other school activities. School Superintendent Beth Pressler said no final decisions have been made, but “people don’t realize the cost of transportation — fuel, maintenance and the driver’s salary.”
“We have to pull together to get through this. We may have to make some cuts for a year or two, to hopefully bridge the gap with the state funding. We’re looking for ways to avoid cutting programs.”
Pressler said transportation costs for Carrollton’s extracurricular programs, of which athletics are a major part, could come to $28,000 by the end of the school year. It’s a figure, Pressler notes, that could cover the salary of one teacher.
Travel options
Carrollton could take several approaches to cutting travel costs. Depending on the size of the team or group, options include parents volunteering to drive some students to an event. But parents would have to have proof of liability insurance if they transport students other than their own children.
There’s also the possibility of private funding from groups such as Hawk Pride, Carrollton’s football booster club. Because of greater numbers and equipment, football poses more transportation needs than most high school sports and activities.
“I hate that we might have to reach out for more (private funding),” Pressler said. “We have a very active booster club that’s been a major help.”
Carrollton football coach Nick Flowers said that, while his game requires fewer road contests in a given season, there are more games than just the usual four or five varsity contests.
“You’re talking about four or five freshman games and four or five junior varsity games, too,” said Flowers, a Carrollton graduate. “It’s a big deal hauling players around.
“All we’ve had so far is an informational meeting. They talked about (the booster club) helping out, but I hope that’s just a suggestion right now. With finances the way they are, everything’s an option.”
Carlinville already adapting
Carrollton could follow the lead of nearby Carlinville, which already has taken measures to provide less-expensive transportation — such as parents driving a few student-athletes to a game — whenever it’s feasible.
“We started doing this several years ago,” said Carlinville Superintendent Mike Kelly. “Most times, it needs to be something where only 14 or 15 students are involved, and it needs to be something in the evening, where parents are available to transport kids.
“If it’s something right after school, where we have to leave around 3:20, we probably can’t get enough parents. But let’s say it’s a 6:30 game in Hillsboro or Raymond, then we’re fine.”
Kelly said the transportation formula often features a few willing parents, plus a coach who drives a van with athletes who still need a ride. It varies depending on the timing and location of the activity, but Kelly said anytime they can avoid using a conventional school bus, they do so.
Kelly did not have any specific data on how much has been saved, but he said any savings are welcome these days.
“The bottom line is, we’re trying to reduce costs without reducing opportunities,” he said.
The response has been such that Carlinville is considering expanding its alternative transportation efforts.
“We haven’t done this for volleyball yet, but we’re thinking about trying it next year,” Kelly said. “These are hard times, and tough decisions are having to be made. I can see teams traveling less and adjusting their competition.”
Dave Kane can be reached at 788-1544.
More than one way to cut the travel budget
Reducing travel costs for high school activities often focuses on avoiding the use of a traditional school bus — and paying for the driver and fuel that go with it.
But at least one school district recently decided to cut back on mileage itself. Rochester has adopted a policy calling for all of the Rockets’ away games to be no more than 75 miles away.
The decision coincides with Rochester High School’s scheduled move to the Central State Eight Conference next school year. In recent years, the Rockets’ football trips in the Corn Belt Conference included Pontiac (108 miles away), Eureka (85) and Mahomet-Seymour (84).
Next year, Rochester’s farthest conference trips will be to Jacksonville (42 miles) and Lincoln (36).
“With the Corn Belt, we wouldn’t have been able to do this,” said Rochester High School principal Dennis Canny. “But this applies to regular-season (sports) events, not the postseason.”
A 75-mile figure would still allow Rochester teams to travel to the Bloomington area, although several Metro-East schools are just beyond that radius. Edwardsville is 80 driving miles away from Rochester; Jerseyville is 91; Collinsville 90, and Highland 79.
Canny said playing against any schools beyond the 75-mile limit will require more creativity in scheduling. For example, several baseball teams could meet at an “in between” site on a Saturday and play each other in a triple-header format.
Darrin DeNeve, the athletics director and girls basketball coach at Carlinville, said his school has taken a “closer to home” scheduling approach.
“Our three non-conference games next year are against Gillespie, Staunton and North Mac (in Virden),” DeNeve said. “It doesn’t get much closer than that.
“We’ve done other things to cut back, too. When we played basketball at Hillsboro in early December, all of our boys and girls teams — varsity and junior varsity — went over there. We needed two buses to go over, but we knew a lot of the kids would go home with their parents, so only one of our buses stayed.”
Carlinville School Superintendent Mike Kelly is an advocate of “doubling up” in sports such as baseball and softball. He would like to see the South Central Conference — of which Carlinville is a member — schedule baseball and softball games between the same schools on the same day at the same site. It would allow teams to travel together.
“One game might end a lot sooner than the other one,” Kelly said. “But the softball girls can just go cheer for the baseball boys.”
— Dave Kane
Carlinville parents join transportation team
They wouldn’t want to make a living doing it, but Lynne Evans and Mike Viano don’t mind occasionally serving as chauffeurs for student-athletes from Carlinville High School.
It’s not like they have to go out of their way.
Evans and Viano are Carlinville sports parents who have provided transportation to out-of-town events for other Cavaliers in addition to their own children. It’s part of the school district’s efforts to cut costs on transportation.
Evans, a pre-kindergarten teacher in the Carlinville school district, and her husband, Bob, are the parents of Nicholas Evans, a junior who plays football, basketball and baseball.
Viano and his wife, Kim, own First to the Finish, a Carlinville business that specializes in track and field equipment. Their daughter, Kelsee Viano, is a 2007 CHS graduate who runs track and cross country at Eastern Illinois University. Their son, Austin Viano, is a Carlinville senior who competes in the same two sports.
Mike Viano said he and Kim already were active in Carlinville’s track booster club, so providing transportation was a natural thing to do. While it meant adding liability insurance so they could transport other students in addition to Kelsee or Austin, the Vianos thought it was worth it.
“We took five kids down to Carbondale for an indoor (track) meet two weeks ago,” Mike said. “We don’t get reimbursed, but our kids are in the sport.
“As school funding changes, there’s going to be more and more of a burden on school districts. But I think Carlinville’s actually ahead of the curve on doing things like this.”
Lynne Evans said she and her husband have been fortunate in that their work hours have allowed them to provide rides to and from out-of-town games.
“It makes a lot of sense to me, really,” she said. “People don’t realize how much transportation costs a school district. It’s huge.”
Evans said it’s common for student-athletes to ride a team bus to an out-of-town game, then come home with their parents. But Evans said Carlinville baseball coach Bernie Dzafic took an old-school approach to team travel last season.
“I had to respect what he told the boys after the game,” Evans said. “He wanted everyone to ride back home on the bus. He said, ‘We came here as a team and we’re going home as a team.’
“If the bus is there, why not take it back home?”
– Dave Kane
Cost of road trips
A cost breakdown for three school-bus trips for Carlinville High School sports teams this school year:
Sport destination driver fuel total
Cross country Rochester $133.31 $50.40 $163.71
Wrestling Mt. Olive $163.67 $26.88 $190.55
Basketball Piasa $81.84 $19.92 $101.76
(Fuel cost based on $2.40 per gallon; driver cost based on school district rate of $25.18 for first hour and $12.59 for each additional hour.)
Source: School Superintendent Mike Kelly
Read the original article from The State Journal-Register.
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I am an AD from a small rural district facing extreme financial issues. My thought is that I was under the impression that in order for schools to remove themselves from liability suits involving accidents that schools need to transport students in a yellow or commercial bus. I too have often thought of having parents drive as many private schools do around here. No public schools in Idaho have allowed parents to drive. In fact, most have poilicies in place making kids ride to games on the bus. I know of one district being sued because a parent was not allowed to transpost their middle school child to away contests.