As the Salisbury Township School District reviews how to eliminate waste in the budget, expenses for transportation services came under scrutiny during the operations committee meeting April 3.

“Transportation is something we have been criticized by the state for; we are spending too much per student,” Board Secretary Robert Bruchak said.

The board members discussed following the state guidelines which directs that students within a specific perimeter of the school would walk to school rather than ride a bus.

Students at the secondary level of school would be required to walk to school if they lived within a two mile perimeter of the school, while elementary school students would be required to walk to school if they lived within a one and a half mile perimeter of the school.

Director of Transportation Services for the District Mark Donnelli said 1,622 students are bused to 42 different buildings during the school year.

“There are 25 other private schools in the area that, at any given moment a student can choose to attend and the district may not have a bus going that way but will be required to add a route for that student,” Donnelli said.

“In the 2014-2015 school year, we bused 492 students that were not reimbursable by the state guidelines,” Donnelli continued.

Donnelli reported that during the 2015-2016 school year, the state took a $67,000 deduction from Salisbury’s allowable transportation costs.

By eliminating one school bus, the school could realize a savings of $40,000.

Donnelli presented slides to the board outlining the walking areas for each of the district’s schools, as well as charter and private schools. In almost every slide presented, some students in each of the walk zones were being bused.

Donnelli noted it was undetermined who created the current walk zones used by the district; however, Tweed Avenue was determined to be a variable in the designated cut-off zone for both the Harry S Truman Elementary and Salisbury High schools.

After reviewing the slides, the board noted there were elementary students walking to HST, while there were several SHS students living approximately the same distance to the high school being bused.

Board members agreed they did not want elementary school students crossing busy or hazardous roadways or intersections, but will examine whether they can eliminate the bus for the 59 high school students living in walk zones who currently ride the bus.

Bruchak said whatever decision the board determines to be appropriate, must also be equitable for all students being bused by the district.

Director George Gatanis had some reservations about whether changing the zones or eliminating one bus would be worth the savings.

“Administration is not recommending this, but as a team we are looking at possible deductions and this is something that has to at least be looked at and examined,” Bruchak responded.

Superintendent Dr. Randy Ziegenfuss stressed that while the board will take the matter under consideration, there are many factors they will have to review to make any changes to the school’s bus zones. The board will, however, take a closer look at eliminating the bus for high school students in the walk zone.