Minor schedule changes provide greater savings in transportation.
Yuma, AZ –The benefits and savings of over $16.5 million by sharing student transportation between Yuma School District One and Yuma Union High School District (YUHSD) was presented to governing board members at the District One board meeting on Monday and the YUHSD board meeting on Wednesday.
District One and YUHSD Chief Financial Officers, Esperanza Rodriguez and Dianne Cordery, and Ronald Schepers, Director of Transportation, presented a proposal to change the start and end times for schools while realizing an additional savings of $320,000.
Yuma School District One and YUSD board members approved new school start times for elementary, middle and high school students. The later start times benefit the districts with cost savings and will benefit schools with more flexibility for before school practices, activities and programs.
Yuma School District One board members approved new school start times for middle and elementary students. Under the new schedule, middle schools will be starting 20 minutes later at 8:35 a.m., and elementary schools will be starting 15 minutes later at 8:45 a.m. The proposal provided to the YUHSD school board changes start times 15 minutes later to 7:45 a.m. for the four comprehensive high schools in Yuma. San Luis High School and Vista Alternative will have different start times.
The later start times benefit the districts with cost savings and will benefit schools with more flexibility for before school practices, activities and programs. The move to a later schedule also is supported by research that older students struggle with earlier start times due to natural sleeping schedules.
Student transportation is run by the Yuma Educational Transportation Consortium, which includes a partnership of District One and YUHSD. The transportation partnership benefits both districts by:
- Maximizing bus usage between partners to keep the number of buses in the fleet as minimal as possible
- —Establishing bus and vehicle procedures in one facility, maximizing efficiency for preventive maintenance and repair costs
- —Combining efforts to recruit, train and manage employees, reducing staffing needs to operate services
- —Lowering overhead costs by operating in a common facility
The presentation also highlighted a communication plan to make sure parents are informed of the changes for the upcoming school year.
The transportation consortium is a result of an intergovernmental agreement to provide the cooperative and joint provision of access to student transportation and student transportation related services appropriate to the educational mission of each party.
The transportation consortium currently employs 235 drivers, aides, mechanics and support staff. By operating a transportation consortium, taxpayer dollars are used efficiently and effectively thus allowing ever decreasing state funds to be kept in the classroom.
