Before anything that happens within school walls, the Duval County school district spends about $63 million per year on transporting students there — that’s about 66% more than other large Florida school districts, according to the district. And with two of the district’s bus company contracts coming up for negotiation this year, Chief of Operations Paul Soares recently told the School Board that prices could go even higher.
In the short run, to cut costs. Duval Schools is combining school bus routes for GRASP Academy and Fort Caroline Middle School of the Arts, both in Arlington, and considering a policy change to make it easier to cut magnet school routes with low ridership.
More drastic changes to school transportation could be on the horizon. Former Superintendent Diana Greene told the School Board in April: “We have to come have this tough conversation. I'm sorry, but we will not survive if we continue at this rate.”
Soares presented 10 cost-cutting options to the board during that same meeting, ranging from combining stops to cutting magnet school transportation altogether — with a potential savings of up to $18 million. It’s money the district says “could be used to support instruction in schools but instead funds school bus operations.”
Read the rest of this story at Jacksonville Today, part of WJCT Public Media.
