Budget Woes Force $50 School Bus Fee Plan

Free bus rides to Monrovia schools may become a thing of the past next week when the school board considers charging new fees for busing to make up for lost transportation funding from the state.

If approved by the Monrovia Unified School District Board of Education, the plan would levy a $50 per semester fee on parents for home-to-school bus service. Students on the free or reduced lunch program would not need to pay the fee, according to a staff report prepared by Connie Wu, the district's chief business officer.

School Board President Bryan Wong said in an interview that the state has cut all transportation funding to local school districts, leaving Monrovia with a budget gap it needs to fill.

"This is another one of those topics that’s been kind of thrown around for a while," Wong said. "The reason that it's coming to the forefront again is because the state is going to cut out all transportation funding."

The district contributed $173,000 to the busing program last year to cover a shortfall in funding from the state, according to Wu's report. Further cuts will force the district to come up with an additional $122,000, the report states.

Wong said he was wary of imposing any new fees on parents but added that the budget must be balanced somehow.

"Are these economic times just absolutely horrible and parents not able to afford any additional bills at this time? Yeah, it’s a concern," he said. "I know I’m not the only person reticent about adding additional fees."

Wu's report notes that other nearby school districts already charge fees for their busing services. Arcadia's school district charges parents $80 per semester, the report states.

In addition to transportation funding cuts, the district is bracing for planned deferrals of state funding that will force MUSD to borrow $8 million to cover its expenses until June.

The deferral of state funding will cost the district $50,000 in lost interest, according to a staff report prepared by David Conway, MUSD's director of financial services.