District puts brakes on busing program

SANDPOINT — To combat budget shortfalls, the Lake Pend Oreille School District is abandoning its practice of busing Farmin-Stidwell Elementary School students to local day care centers.

The “courtesy busing,” as LPOSD officials call it, has been in practice for at least five years, according to Superintendent Dick Cvitanich.

Cvitanich said the decision to discontinue the program came after the district’s transportation budget was cut by 50 percent, which has forced the elimination of nearly all non-essential travel, including most field trips and courtesy busing. Cvitanich also said busing students to the day care centers is tantamount to subsidizing private businesses.

“I think what the childcare centers are asking is for us to supplement their private businesses, and I don’t think that’s our role,” he said.

“We are supposed to be the custodian of the district’s dollars, and I don’t think public dollars … should be subsidizing private enterprises.”

The courtesy busing, which Cvitanich said costs the district $5,000 per year, carries 30-40 Farmin Stidwell and Washington Elementary School students to four local childcare facilities at the end of each school day.

The district will continue offering the service to Washington students because all four of the day care centers fall within Washington’s bus route, according to Cvitanich.

“In a perfect world we would take every kid right in front of their house and drop them off or we’d drop every student at a day care, but that’s not what we can do, and I guess our feeling is that those day cares are for-profit businesses,” Cvitanich said.

District officials are currently in talks with the owners of the four day care centers, and Cvitanich is confident a financial deal will be worked out before school begins in this fall.

Given the number of students involved, Cvitanich said it would cost each child approximately 50 cents per day to continue the busing.

“From my perspective, that 50 cents is a pretty reasonable amount of money for transporting a child when, as I said, other day cares in school districts I’ve worked for have been responsible for transporting children to their day care,” he said.