Simi Schools Consider Bus Fees to Cut Deficit : Education: The district says the charges may be the only way to save programs from a projected $2-million shortfall. Parents will be surveyed in June.

Simi Valley school officials said Thursday that a projected $2-million budget deficit may force them to charge fees to school bus riders to save educational programs.

“We’re studying it,” Supt. Robert Purvis said of the bus fees. “We still need a great deal of information.”

If approved, Simi Valley Unified School District would become the only district in the county to charge bus fees and one of just two dozen in the state with such levies. Las Virgenes Unified School District in Calabasas has a bus fee.

Fillmore Unified School District charged fees for a short time in the mid-1980s, and officials at the Pleasant Valley Unified School District in Camarillo and the Conejo Unified School District said Thursday that tight budgets have forced them to consider the fees.

Purvis said the Simi Valley district, the largest in the county with 18,000 students, plans to survey parents next month for response to bus fares, which could be implemented by next spring.

Purvis and some school board members said they agree that the recession and the shrinking state budget give them little choice in the matter.

School officials said a staff report presented this week concluded that charging annual bus fees of $120 to $510 per student may be the only way the district can continue to operate its bus service without harming educational programs. The exact amount of the fees would depend on ridership.

“I would not feel good about collecting money for riding the bus,” Purvis said. “But if it’s a matter of having to cut education programs, then we don’t have any choice.”

Board members Carla Kurachi and Ken Ashton agreed.

“If we’re going to stay in the transportation business, we can’t just keep taking money from the general fund to pay for it,” Kurachi said.

Ashton said the fees might enable the district to use the money saved to hire additional teachers and cut class size.

Janice DiFatta, president of the Simi Valley Parent Teacher Assn., said her group has not discussed the issue, but that she also believes the district may have no alternative.

“Busing is a bonus,” she said. “It is not required by the state. We’ve been fortunate that we have been able to have it until this point.”

DiFatta said her 11-year-old son and 14-year-old daughter walk to school. However, she said that her family will be moving soon and that her children may have to use the bus.

The annual operating cost of school bus service in Simi Valley is $1.2 million, with about $900,000 coming from the state and the remainder from the district’s general fund, said Frank Smith, director of transportation. About 1,350 students use the bus.

Smith said the number of bus passengers dropped by 400 when the district, faced with an $8-million budget deficit last year, decided to eliminate buses to high schools and restricted service for junior high students.

School officials said their interest in bus fees was prompted by a ruling last month by a state Court of Appeal that upheld the right of school districts to charge for transportation to preserve academic programs. However, the ruling may be appealed to the state Supreme Court.

Ventura County Supt. James F. Cowan said other school districts will probably follow Simi Valley’s lead in considering bus fees.

“I imagine, with most districts pressed for money, that would be a good possibility,” he said.

Donald Zimring, assistant superintendent of the Las Virgenes Unified School District in Calabasas, said his district has been charging bus fees for 12 years. He said the district charges $190 per student each semester, but offers special discounts and free rides to students of low-income families. About 1,800 of the district’s 9,000 students ride the bus.

“The fees are vital to our district,” Zimring said. “Transportation is not a function of education. It’s a service, and it takes away valuable classroom dollars.”

He said that if the ruling by the state Court of Appeal stands, he expects more school districts to impose bus fees, reduce the service or “get out of the transportation business entirely.”