It stands to reason with rising fuel prices that school transportation costs also increase for the New York Mills School District.
Superintendent Todd Cameron presented some interesting numbers regarding buses, fuel costs and open enrollment at last month's school board meeting.
Historically, the cost for fuel over the past five years has doubled from roughly $26,000 in the 2001-02 school year to $52,000 in 2005-06. Last year the district spent about $68,000.
The two things that impact transportation cost most are open enrollment and fuel cost. NY Mills has added more bus route miles and pick-up locations in the Deer Creek, Rush Lake, and Sebeka areas last year, with additional open-enrollment requests approved this year. Most of the new pick-up locations have been along established routes. Some requested pick-ups, which were not along routes, have been denied.
According to Cameron, the overall number of miles driven has increased, but the cost per mile with driver has gone down from $1.97 in 2003-04 to $1.79 in 2006-07. The cost per mile without the driver also went down slightly from $1.10 to .99 cents.
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"Cost per mile with and without the driver is more efficient today, considering the cost of fuel and the additional miles because we have not added any routes or additional drivers," Cameron said.
Total Mileage Regular Routes
2006-07 124,671
2005-06 119,065
2002-03 104,465
Total Mileage Outside the District
2002-03 15,570
2003-04 25,085
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2004-05 34,946
2005-06 37,368
2006-07 38,752
NY Mills continues to add more students than it loses through open enrollment. Five years ago the total of open enrollment students coming into the district was 70. Last year open enrollment was 107. The number of students leaving the district also increased from 44 five years ago to 70 last year, for a net gain of 37 students compared to 26 in 2002. In 2001 the district had a net gain of only 6 students - 56 in and 50 out.
Each student generates about $6,000 of general fund revenue.
