Student Bus Fee Proposal Under Fire : Antelope Valley: The high school district may begin charging passengers starting next month. Parents say they can’t afford another expense.

An Antelope Valley Union High School District transportation task force, responding to complaints from parents, Wednesday recommended reducing the amount of a new school busing fee from $150 to $100, with a cap of $200 per family.

The action was taken following a meeting Tuesday attended by nearly 100 angry parents who said their household budgets are already straining to meet the rising cost of living.

Encouraged by a recent state Supreme Court ruling, school officials of the financially troubled district are considering charging the fees in September to try to ease a $12.4-million budget shortfall. That shortfall has led to the elimination of 101 jobs and will result in larger teacher workloads and more crowded classes.

Sunny Christensen, who has a daughter attending Antelope Valley High School, was typical of many parents who spoke at a meeting Tuesday night. “This is a hard economy, and we’re being asked to come up with money we don’t have,” she said. “We’re being asked to pay for the screw-ups of the district. It’s so upsetting. I can come up with the money, but for some it will be impossible.”

The fees would not apply to handicapped or low-income students, who must be provided transportation by state law. But the fees would affect about 2,000 of the 2,500 non-handicapped students who ride buses daily to and from the six schools in the 11,500-student district.

The transportation plan was drafted by a 14-member volunteer panel of administrators, teachers, school employees and parents, commissioned by the district’s board of trustees in July to find ways to reduce costs.

The panel is expected to write a final proposal and send it to the board of trustees on Friday. The board may make a decision on the fees Wednesday.

The committee’s draft proposal previously called for charging home-to-school transportation fees of $150 annually, with a maximum of $300 per family.

It also recommends a three-tiered activity fee based on the number of trips school organizations take for sports or other extracurricular activities. Those fees would range from $10 to $65 a year. The maximum fee for a family would be $195 a year.

As a result, some parents told the panel Tuesday that a family paying both the home-to-school fee and the activity fee could pay a combined $495 a year.

The idea came as a shock to many parents who grew up with the tradition of free public school bus service.

“In these economic times I think it’s ridiculous to ask anyone to come up with more than $200 to $250,” said Ken Scott, who has a daughter at Quartz Hill High School. “Anything more than $250 a year is unreasonable.”

Panel member Jim Gardner, who represents teachers in the district, responded that it was with great anguish that the panel came up with the proposal. “The district is bankrupt. There is no alternative,” he said.

State law does not allow districts to charge a fee to transport handicapped students or indigent students. The proposal suggests that the criteria for indigent students be based on those who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.

Ken McCoy, chief executive officer of the Antelope Valley Schools Transportation Agency, which provides busing for the district, said he is expecting a consultant’s report on Thursday to see if expenses for transporting handicapped students can also be trimmed.