Costa Mesa / Newport Beach : Bus Option Restored to High School Students

High school students in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District have had their bus-riding privileges reinstated.

After complaints from some parents that their high school-age children couldn’t ride the same buses as their younger counterparts, school district trustees reinstated bus service for students in the ninth through 12th grades.

“We have very few students who use the bus,” said Mary Anne Archibold, assistant principal at Corona del Mar High School. “But we had one parent who complained her high school student couldn’t ride with her junior high student.”

Most high school students drive their own vehicles or car pool with friends, said Rita Finen, director of transportation for the district.

Because only 130 of the district’s 2,600 high school students were using the district’s bus system, Finen said, officials voted in February to end the service to save the $20,000 that it costs every year.

That was one of several cuts made in the midst of dire fiscal projections after Orange County’s bankruptcy filing. The savings came to $3.1 million, officials said this week, so the district can afford to reinstate some programs.

“Our philosophy, is if we get 130 more students to school, why not reinstate it?” Supt. Mac Bernd said of the bus service.

Bernd said ninth- and 10th-graders are the ones who will benefit most, for those students generally are not old enough to have driver’s licenses.