Corona-Norco Schools to Impose Bus Fee

Despite vocal opposition from parents, the Corona-Norco Unified School District will begin charging about $90 to $100 per year for school bus rides.

The Board of Education voted 3 to 2 Tuesday night to impose a transportation fee when school opens in September, 1986. The fee will be computed to keep the district’s share of transportation costs to 1% of its total expected budget.

Based on the current year’s budget of $49 million, the fee would be between $90 and $94 annually, according to board member Terry Young.

That fee would be less than the $100 per student proposed by school Supt. Don Helms but could increase if transportation costs rise faster than district revenues.

Under Young’s proposal, which the board approved, a family would not pay fees for more than two children at a time. Also, students eligible for free or discounted school lunches will receive free transportation.

The new fees are needed to offset increasing transportation costs, Helms said. About $741,000 in transportation costs not borne by the state last year could have been used for salaries, supplies and instructional programs, he said.

Since 1977, transportation costs’ “encroachment” on the general fund has totaled $2.5 million, he said.

“That’s a pretty big subsidy for 28% of the kids who ride the bus,” Helms said.

The goal of the Corona-Norco district, Helms said, is to cut in half the general-fund expenditures for transportation.

Other Southland school districts have increased students’ maximum walking distances, imposed transportation fees or eliminated bus service partially or entirely, Helms said.

“The State of California does not define a school board’s responsibility in the area of busing,” except for special education students, Young said.

Some Corona-Norco district parents argued, however, that the cost of getting to school should be considered a part of the cost of education. Busing costs, they said, should be borne by all taxpayers, like any other governmental service that directly benefits only part of the population.

Some parents, speaking at a public hearing Tuesday night, said many families that might not be able to afford the fees or to take their children to school themselves still might not qualify for discounted or free bus passes.

The new fee plan includes a provision exempting students who live close enough to walk to one school but are bused to another to relieve overcrowding.

School board member Louis VanderMolen voted against the fees, saying the district had not sufficiently studied such options as hiring a private contractor or finding other sources of funding for buses.

The board had also discussed elimination of up to 44 bus stops for elementary school students in Norco, but voted to keep those stops through this school year.