By CHRIS LINDAHL
@cmlindahl
Daily Hampshire Gazette
SOUTHAMPTON — A William E. Norris Elementary School parent believes that she and the parents of more than 100 other students are due a refund of busing fees after the town saved money on transportation costs this year.
Jessica McConnell asked town officials at a Select Board meeting last week to refund some of the fees paid by the parents of children who take the bus and live within two miles of Norris. She argued that after the cost of the $238,385 bus contract was reduced by some $11,000 this year when the school took one bus out of service, the fee should no longer apply.
McConnell said that the savings amount to a “surplus” as the fee was assessed for the first time in 2015 to close a budget gap.
Town officials say municipal finance is much more complicated than that.
The School Committee will consider McConnell’s request during its meeting at 6 p.m. Monday at the elementary school library.
“That money rightly belongs to me and the other parents who have paid busing fees,” said McConnell, who is also a bus driver for Norris.
“The School Department can do whatever they want on that piece,” Town Administrator Heather Budrewicz said. “But folks have to realize it’s not that simple.”
When the town received bids in 2014 for a new five-year contract, the company that had been providing buses, Durham School Services, was the lowest bidder. But that bid was still $50,000 higher than Durham’s previous contract, according to Town Accountant Vicki Moro.
With the fiscal 2015 budget already ready for a Town Meeting vote, the School Committee was forced to scramble to make up the difference.
The School Department was able to move $25,000 to pay for the contract and the committee voted to assess a fee of $225, or not more than $450 per family, to make up the rest of the money.
That fee continued for the current fiscal year’s balanced budget.
While school committees have the power to charge for busing for students who live within two miles of their schools, school transportation is paid for out of the town budget. The revenue from those fees goes into the town’s general fund — just one piece of the municipal finance formula.
“We don’t ask the Building Department to just fund itself with all the fees they collect,” Moro said. “There seems to be a misconception in that all that money (the bus savings) just gets dumped into free cash.”
Free cash refers to unspent revenue available at the end of a fiscal year.
“There’s going to be money left over, but I can’t save it for the school,” Moro said. There is no state law that allows those funds to be put into a special account, she added.
Budrewicz clarified the budget process on Thursday.
“Ultimately if the money wasn’t coming in from the parents to go toward transportation we wouldn’t be able to pay for something else in the town budget — $25,000 is $25,000,” she said. “There’s no direct funnel” of revenue into a specific budget item.
Moro said if refunds are issued, the process of issuing checks would be a crunch for her department, which has no overtime funds available.
“I’m not saying we can’t do it, but it’s time-consuming,” she said.
At least one School Committee member seems to be in support of issuing partial refunds.
At the Select Board meeting, committee member Cheryn Wojick, who said she has a background in municipal finance, said she would volunteer her time to process the refunds.
“I know it’s really important for families,” she said. “$150 is a lot of money for some families.”
McConnell said taking the bus is necessary for many students in town, including her own even if they do live close to school. Walking on busy Route 10 is not an option because much of it does not have sidewalks.
McConnell said she is hopeful that walkability will improve during the next school year after a state-funded Safe Routes to School sidewalk construction project is complete on Route 10.
“The current situation is bad,” she said. “As I come down Pomeroy Meadow (Road while driving the bus), there are kids crossing from the side streets.”
The Select Board voted unanimously to send a memo to the School Committee requesting that it investigate transportation fees.
Chris Lindahl can be reached at [email protected].
