by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

At the May 16 budget workshop, the Franklin County School Board struggled with a tangle of interrelated issues: bus owner/driver dissatisfaction with the amount of compensation; a very small increase in state Basic Education Program (BEP) revenue which helps fund raises; and uncertainty about property tax revenues. The board also considered discontinuing the Extended School Program.

“We’re making less money than we did 10 years ago,” said Jan Lappin, spokesperson for the more than 20 bus drivers who attended the meeting. “Gas isn’t the only thing that’s going up. If we’d been kept up to date and had decent raises, we wouldn’t be in this shape.”

Many bus drivers own more than one bus and hire drivers for some of their routes. Bus owner/drivers’ pay has three components: salary, a fixed rate per mile, and the number of seats on a bus. Owners also receive a fuel bonus when diesel exceeds $3.70 per gallon.

“You’ve been getting raises like teachers, but only on your salary,” said Director of Schools Stanley Bean, acknowledging the inequity.

“I just want to get back to where I was a few years ago,” said a bus owner who worked two jobs to keep his bus routes going. Another bus owner complained it was hard to find drivers because the bus owners couldn’t pay them enough.

The bus owners requested a $10,000 annual flat rate increase for each bus route. (There are 40 routes.) The bus owners also asked the district to lower the fuel-bonus trigger point to $2.70 per gallon.

Bean said the budget called for a 2.5 percent salary increase for bus owners, but he stressed being able to provide that depended on increased property tax revenues. BEP funding, which typically increases $500,000-$600,000 annually only went up $132,000. Teacher raises would be less than 2 percent without increased property tax revenues.

And property tax revenues may not increase, even though the recent property tax appraisals showed dramatically increased property values for many. “The county commission is getting phone calls to lower the tax rate,” Bean said. “My goal is to get them not to lower the tax rate. If they leave it where it is, it should generate a pretty good chunk of money.” Bean said the district would not know what the commission decided until July.

County Finance Director Andrea Smith pointed out it was an election year, and in the past the commission deferred acting on the tax rate question until after the election. But Smith also noted the salary increase for state employees was 5.9 percent, which could encourage the commission not to drop the tax rate back to a zero-revenue increase level. “We’d be giving away all the growth we had,” Smith said.

“I’m not working for a 2.5 percent salary increase,” said one bus owner, insisting he would find work somewhere else. “2.5 percent wouldn’t be bad if we got it on the whole deal.”

“We have to help them [bus owners],” said board member Chris Guess. “They can’t work for zero.” Guess suggested giving the bus owners raises from the fund balance, the amount the district holds in reserve, even though he normally opposed drawing on the fund balance to cover recurring expenses.

Board member Lance Williams said drawing $400,000 annually from the fund balance for bus-owner raises would deplete the reserve in five years.

Board member Sarah Liechty proposed a one-time bonus drawn from the fund balance.

Bean said combining routes and so decreasing the number of routes could help relieve the financial pressure on the district, but the bus owners did not respond to the suggestion.

Turning to ESP difficulties, Bean said it was getting harder each year to staff the program. He proposed discontinuing the ESP and using ESP reserves to start a childcare center at the Activity Center slated for construction at the Franklin County High School, with the possibility of branches in other locations. Board member Sarah Marhevsky pointed out many parents relied on after-school care and suggested a conversation with parents at the schools offering ESP.

The board will continue the budget discussion at a workshop on Monday, June 6.