Transportation change to net big savings

The Port Washington-Saukville School District is going to change the way it fulfills its obligation to provide transportation to students attending private schools, and in the process save tens of thousands of dollars a year.

The district, which previously paid a school bus company to provide that transportation, will now arrange other ways to do that, including possibly paying parents to take their children to and from the private schools they attend.

The School Board voted unanimously last month to enter into individual transportation contracts with the parents of students who live in the district but attend private schools and qualify for public school-funded transportation.

Transporting children to private schools on school buses costs the district $43,123 a year. Paying for that transportation through contracts with parents is expected to cost the district $7,857, resulting in an annual savings of $35,266.

“I’d like to thank the administration for bringing this forward,” School Board President Sara McCutcheon said. “This is information we have never seen before.

“Thank you for finding a considerable amount of savings.”

State law requires public school districts to provide transportation services to private school students who live within the school district, live two miles or more from the schools they attend and live within the private school’s attendance area.

In addition, the private school must be within the boundaries of the school district or, in some cases, not more than five miles beyond the boundaries.

Supt. Michael McMahon said the number of private school students the Port-Saukville School District provides transportation for varies between 10 and 22 a year.

Although the district will now contract individually with the parents of these students rather than provide school bus service, it is the district that decides on the type of transportation service it pays for. It could, for instance, decide to compensate parents for getting their children to and from school.