THOUSAND OAKS : School District OKs $450 Annual Bus Fee

The Conejo Valley Unified School District on Thursday approved a $2.50-a-day fee for students to take the bus to school, becoming the first school board in Ventura County to adopt such fees since the California Supreme Court ruled them legal last month.

District board members, on a 4-1 vote, said they will impose the $450-a-year fee for home-to-school bus service beginning in September.

Board member Richard Newman sympathized with parents’ concerns about the bus fee, but said the district has no alternatives. “We only have a finite amount of money and these things are not going to get any easier,” Newman said. “If we had not approved the bus fee, we would be looking at $400,000 in additional cuts to the budget.”

Assistant Supt. Sarah Hart said the bus fee was needed to help combat a $2.8-million budget deficit that the district is facing for the 1992-93 school year.

The Conejo Valley school district now spends about $300 a year for each of its 1,486 students who ride the bus. The district has 17,500 students.

Officials said they came up with the $450 fee by taking into account a 16% increase in the district’s bus contract, and compensating for the 10% who will received free bus passes or discounts. Also, district officials expect that fewer paying students will take the bus next school year, and thus the cost per student will increase.

Students who meet state criteria for the free lunch program would be eligible for a free bus pass. Those who are eligible for reduced meal tickets would qualify for a 75% bus ticket discount.

Only about 10 parents attended the meeting to oppose the fee.

“I’m disappointed in the bus fee,” said Rene Shuster, a Thousand Oaks mother of two children who ride the bus.

“Over the last couple of years, I’ve had to pay for my kids’ school supplies, their textbooks and now this,” Shuster said. “I don’t know what the difference is between private school and public school anymore.”

If school boundaries remain the same, officials estimate that 1,114 students will be bused in the 1992-93 school year. Of the 1,486 students who now ride the bus, they project that 372 will stop riding the bus once the fee is imposed.

While other large school districts in the county have expressed interest in bus fees, none have imposed them.

Conejo Valley’s plan calls for charging parents $225 per semester, or about $2.50 a day.

Applications, due Aug. 10, will be sent in midsummer to families who live within the eligible busing area.