WHY IS THE BUS FLEET SO OLD?
Post date: Jul 30, 2016 5:45:16 PM
QUICK ANSWER:
The district has been slowly updating its bus fleet for years, but steadily declining state funding has forced it to limit the replacement rate to about one bus per year since 2008. The 2016 bond seeks to update the fleet by replacing all of the buses purchased in the 1990s.
Responding to continued state funding cuts since 2009, the district has prioritized keeping money in the classroom and reconfiguring its facilities to reduce the number of elementary and secondary sites to become as efficient as possible while providing a great education.
Now it is time to update the fleet so that is more reliable and efficient, but the existing fleet is NOT unsafe.
What has the district been doing about buses during the years-long state funding crisis?
The district has passed several successful prior bond issues that included some funding for transportation. Most recently, the August 2012 bond issue is providing enough funds to keep the fleet operational by replacing one bus per year. But the fleet's advanced age means that the district is seeking more funding in 2016 to improve the fleet's efficiency and reliability. The bus fleet is NOT unsafe, as the district continues to invest in proper maintenance, but it is very inconvenient for students when old buses break down and leave them stranded until another bus can be sent out, especially on long trips for competitive events. The age of the fleet also means it is not cost-efficient to operate or maintain.
Why didn't the 2012 and 2013 bond issues focus even more money on buses?
Before now, the district has been unable to direct more of its bond capacity towards updating the bus fleet because of severe state funding cuts since 2008. Even before the state revenue failures in 2016, Oklahoma state aid per pupil had declined more than in any other state in the nation. This forced the district to prioritize spending, and it has focused on keeping as much funding as possible in the classroom.
The school district has faced millions of dollars in lost state funding, and responded with selective staffing and expense cuts plus two major reconfigurations to reduce operating expenses and keep more money in the classroom:
Closing the smaller Oak Park Elementary School in 2011 to save over $600,000 in annual operational costs. Oak Park students began going to Wilson Elementary, where they've received a great education: in several testing areas in 2016, Wilson Elementary, which now includes Oak Park, even outperformed the often top-ranked Wayside Elementary!
Reconfiguring the secondary schools to reduce from four to three schools for grades 6-12 and thus further reduce operating costs. While the first stab at this did not pass in February 2012, super-majorities of 66% passed a successful bond in August 2012 focused on essential operating needs to keep the district running, including buying one bus per year. In August 2013 there was a wildly successful bond issue, with 76% approval, that focused on expanding Bartlesville High School from 2 to 4 grades so that the old Madison Middle School facility (which has been the home for Central students for two years while Central was renovated) can be shut down in 2016-2017 to further reduce district operating costs.
An example of our aging fleet...and one of our spare parts buses we have to scavenge.