Fuel costs more than school buses

For the first time in the history of the Blue Springs School District, the cost of fuel for school buses has exceeded the cost to purchase the school buses.

“I think this is the first time ever for school districts across the country to see their fuel costs exceed the purchasing of equipment,” said Superintendent Paul Kinder at the Blue Springs Board of Education meeting Tuesday. “I don’t want to dwell on this, but it is important to stop and think about that.”

The Blue Springs Board of Education approved the preliminary 2008-09 budget. As it stands now, the district will spend more than it receives with $162.97 million in expenditures and only $160.30 million in revenue. That reflects a deficit budget of $2.67 million, which will come from the district’s reserve funds. The district currently has $25.77 million in its reserve account.

The budget does include 18 new staff positions to help maintain class size as well as the addition of a new social studies instructional coach at the high school level. The base teacher’s salary will also increase from $33,500 to $34,000 and additional increases have been included at various points in next year’s salary schedule. Teachers move up on the schedule based on the number of years in the school district and the number of graduate hours taken.

Other items included in the budget are an increase of 9.3 percent in board-paid medical insurance and a teacher retirement contribution rate increase from 12.5 percent to 13 percent.

The biggest discussion, however, was on transportation expenditures. There is $810,000 included in the budget for 12 new school buses. This will help the district to rotate out older buses. In comparison, $850,000 is being budgeted for fuel costs.

“If prices stay the same, we will still not have enough money to pay for fuel next year,” said Glen McMillian, transportation director. “If prices go up, we could hit $1 million in fuel costs.”

McMillian said by the end of May, the district had already spent almost $800,000 in fuel, which averages about $4,500 per day. Five years ago, the total fuel budget for the year was not even $375,000.

This is only the preliminary budget. By state law, a preliminary budget must be approved by June 30.

The board of education will look and discuss the budget again at its work session in August and approve a final budget at its Aug. 25 meeting.