Hammond school district finds money in 2025 to restart bus service
Hammond school district finds money in 2025 to restart bus service
Contributed By: The 411 News
School board welcomes 2 newly elected members
Now that the School City of Hammond has money to restart bus transportation for elementary students, all is not settled on when and how it will be put in practice.
That was one of the items on its Board of School Trustees meeting Tuesday night. Notably the first meeting of the year saw actions that drew applause instead of rumblings.
Two newly elected school board members were sworn in – Mellissa Guerra and Evangeline Stanford. The board elected new officers, unanimously in one round of voting: Carlotta Blake-King as president, Kelly Spencer as vice president, and Stanford as secretary.
When bus service was eliminated for most of the district’s elementary students for the start of the 2024-2025 school year, the Hammond school district was under a state imposed corrective action plan to reduce expenses. Earlier in 2024, the district announced 3 elementary schools would not reopen in the Fall.
The redrawing of school boundaries promised most elementary students would be in a 1½ mile radius of their home school. And bus service would only be provided to those elementary students who lived outside of the 1½ mile radius of the school they were assigned to.
“Due to cost cutting, there will be no bus transportation services for most general education students attending SCH elementary schools for the 2024-2025 school year,” the Board announced in July 2024, right before the start of school. “As a result of the updated boundaries, most every elementary school student lives within the walk zone radius of 1.5 miles. You should make your own plans to get your child to and from school.”
As the current school year unfolded, unfilled administrative positions and retirements among teacher and support staffs left money on the table. Board members suggested using that money for elementary bus transportation.
Dr. Brent Wilson, the School City of Hammond’s Interim Superintendent told the board the district would study their recommendation.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the district presented its plan to restore elementary bus service, first to “school areas where walking may pose significant risks for SCH students.” Returning bus services to students who had it in previous years will be next.
“This is a start and I recommend the board approve this plan. As more funds become available we can identify more areas,” Dr. Wilson said. Wilson also asked the board to work to get the walk zone down to 1 mile.
The plan includes Transportation Director Ed Peterson’s 6 criteria for ridership eligibility in the restart plan and in the future.
In order of priority, a history of prior elementary bus service was followed by 5 risks elementary students encounter on their walk to school – crossing or walking along high density thoroughfares, crossing high-speed rail tracks, limited street access to schools, crossing low-speed rail tracks, and distance from home school.
Students at Lincoln and Irving Elementary schools met all 6 criteria and will be first in the restart plan. O’Bannon Elementary is next, then Burns-Hicks and Hess.
The annual total cost of the plan is $167,064.
The school district’s loss of nearly a third of its school bus drivers and the cost cutting will hamper the restart of elementary bus service, Peterson wrote in the plan. Lincoln and Irving will have to share 3 buses to minimize driver and vehicle use, and to fit time constraints and costs.
School officials at Lincoln will have to agree to start the school day ½ hour earlier and Irving officials will have to agree to extend the school day by ½ hour to make the plan work, Peterson wrote.
The school district is still under the Distressed Unit Appeal Board’s corrective action plan and had to get the DUAB’s approval of the transportation plan before presenting it to the school board.
The board voted unanimously to accept the transportation plan.
Hammond Board of School Trustees (l-r) Kelly Spencer, Manny Candelaria, new members Mellisa Guerra and Evangeline Stanford, and Carlotta Blake-King
Story Posted:01/10/2025
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