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Rising Gas Prices Force School Districts to Consider Budgeting

Posted on: Monday, 22 August 2005, 21:00 CDT

Aug. 22--McALLEN -- Area school district administrators are paying attention to unpredictable gasoline prices while they grapple with 2005-06 fiscal year budgets.

Texas school districts must have budgets ready for the start of their fiscal years Sept. 1. But some district personnel are uncertain how to handle consistently rising rates at the pump and the state Legislature's stalemate over how to better fund public schools.

"We understand the pinch at the pump the families are feeling right now, especially school districts and law enforcement agencies," said Craig Stevens, a U.S. Department of Energy spokesman in Washington, D.C. "That is something we are cognizant of, and sympathetic to it, and we are in constant discussions with oil producing nations, and the oil producers domestically here in the country, and in contact with oil refineries."

Stevens said the United States, along with nations with booming economies like China and India, are all working to access the same supply of fossil fuels in the ground. He said a way to ease the burden is for American companies to build more refineries and look more toward alternative fuels, like hydrogen.

But area school districts use diesel fuel and gasoline to run vehicles from buses to police cars.

Daniel P. King, Hidalgo's superintendent, said the state has used a linear density formula since the early 1980s that is based on the number of miles buses are driven, with the number of students picked up along routes, to determine transportation allocations. The money is used to fulfill a state mandate for districts to provide transportation for students living on dangerous roads with no safe walking areas, or more than two miles away from schools.

More state money flowing into districts would ease the financial burdens of transportation, especially on geographically-large districts like Edinburg and La Joya, King said.

"They (legislators) know it and they have talked in the last session," he said. "They talk about it and they've never been able to come to any consensus of the last few years of school finance in general. They are very aware. In fact, they are often bringing it up themselves in how it has not been updated."

Texas Rep. Armando "Mando" Martinez, D-Weslaco, said district personnel should not blame the Legislature for dilemmas in keeping up with rising gasoline and diesel prices. He said the state is not withholding money from districts, but rather they are getting the same money allotments received in the past.

Hidalgo uses 16 buses holding 83 people, two buses for 30 passengers and four buses for 19 people. The largest buses have 100-gallon tanks while the smaller buses hold 40 gallons. Most of the buses run on diesel fuel with some still operating on gasoline.

King said the district charges school groups $1.50 per mile to use buses for field trips and extracurricular activities. He said the figure would stay the same this year, but might be changed in the future to address fuel concerns.

Hidalgo's figure is below the Weslaco school district's charge of $2.07 per mile for bus usage and the $2 per mile the Edinburg school district charges. The money is typically used to cover driver and fuel costs, said Frank Lumbreras, Edinburg's transportation coordinator.

Agapito Navarro Jr., the Edinburg district's assistant superintendent for finance and operations, said the budgeted fuel cost will increase from the 2004-2005 budget year's total of $720,600 to the 2005-2006 budget year's projected $881,000. The district services 400 vehicles using either diesel fuel or gasoline.

"We are low-balling this one right now," Navarro said. "It's gone up 30 cents in the last few days."

He said the district has a transportation challenge of having 945 square miles to cover. Navarro said some bus routes might need to be combined if prices rise to at least $3 per gallon.

Richard Rivera, the Weslaco school district's superintendent, said route changes might also be needed along with studying how to decrease travel and capital outlays costs. He said the frequency of field trips could be considered for cutting if gasoline prices continue to rise.

"I'm sure it is going to go up higher," Rivera said. "I don't see this thing being capped."

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Monitor, McAllen, Texas

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Source: The Monitor (McAllen, Texas)

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