Bigfork School District replaces activity bus
<p>The Bigfork School District recently traded in its old activity bus, which was consistently in need of repairs, for a brand new one.</p>
When Bigfork High School traded in its
activity bus for a brand new one this year during a time of budget
cuts it raised a few concerns from tax payers in town, but
according to those at the school’s district office it really
shouldn’t as it didn’t cost tax payers a dime.
Funds for the bus came from the debt
service fund, not the transportation fund. Schools are allowed to
depreciate the value of their buses annually and levy that amount.
They use that account for things like bus maintenance and to buy
new busses when needed. The transportation fund can only be used
for yellow school buses transporting students to and from school.
Expenses from other uses such as field trips and activities come
out of the general fund.
This year, not unlike many other years,
Bigfork schools did not depreciate any of its buses and therefore
didn’t levy anything. Part of the reason the district decided to do
this was that there was already enough money in the account. In
fact, there was enough to trade in the old activity bus for a new
one and still have enough in the account to purchase a yellow
school bus if that need arose.
“We want to work hard to keep those tax
dollars as low as we can and still keep the vehicles that transport
our students safe,” said Bigfork School District business manager
Eda Taylor.
Schools are allowed to use money from
the debt service fund to replace an activity bus, but may not use
the money to add an additional bus or purchase a first activity
bus.
“Funds at what they can be used for are
very specific,” Taylor said. “(For example,) it’s the general fund
that pays for education needs like classroom teachers.”
Bigfork bought its first activity bus
mostly through donations and money from the general fund. At the
time it was one of the only Class A schools in the state that did
not have an activity bus. The school purchased a heavily used
activity bus at that time to get its foot in the door with the
trade-in option. Two years later the school upgraded to a nicer,
though still used, activity bus using the debt service fund.
When the school traded that bus in over
the summer it had a trade-in value of $30,000 and the district
opted to purchase the high school its first brand new activity bus
for an additional $123,500.
The decision to purchase the new
activity bus was not initiated based on the fact that there was
money available for it. The former bus was in continual need of
repair and was costing the district money, and sometimes causing
safety concerns.
“We wanted to make sure that we were
putting our kids who were traveling for several hours on a bus that
was safe and wouldn’t have problems,” said Bigfork superintendent
Dr. Cynthia Clary. “The old bus was getting to a point where it was
starting to have a lot of issues.”
In addition to the fact that the new
bus will not be as likely to cost the school money for repairs, it
will also be better for the environment. The new activity bus is
the first bus that Bigfork schools has purchased that is in line
with the new federal emission laws that came out in 2010.
Although a lot of schools have
purchased over-sized coach buses in recent years, Bigfork schools
decided to go with a simpler model as it has with the past two
activity buses, which are upgraded yellow school buses with
different paint jobs and decals. Although the activity busses have
nicer seats and a DVD player with multiple monitors.
“It’s a good compromise because it’s a
nice comfortable bus, but it isn’t over the top,” said
transportation director Reenie Clock. “Also, because it is a Blue
Bird bus we can do the maintenance ourselves, which also saves
money.”
There are very few feature changes to
note between the former bus and the new one. The over seat luggage
area is in a slightly different rack style and it provides
individual lights for passengers that weren’t available on the
previous bus. The new bus seats 47 people, which is three more than
the old bus. Also, because it is a newer model it has a curved
windshield and mirrors in slightly different positions for better
visibility.