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Show Transportation Takes Big Bite of Schools' Budgets ) Expenditures for pupil transportation totaled $356,635, or 5.12-percent of the total maintenance and operation budget of Sevier School District last year, according to a report from the Utah Foundation. According to the report, a total of 1,503 students were transported to school in Sevier District during the 1980-81 school year. In Piute District, 276 students were transported that year, costing $94,502, or 9.54-percent of the M and 0 budget. Wayne District reported 39 students transported that year at a cost of $121,107, or 10.15-percent of the total budget. Garfield County has 340 students transported at a cost of $108,3466, for a total of 4.60-percent of the total M and O budget of $2,357,865. Statewide, a total of 107,573 pupils, or one out of every three school children, rode a bus to school last year, and the cost of providing this service has increased more than fourfold over the past ten years. During the 1980-81 school year, the forty Utah school districts expended more than $18.1 million for pupil transportation. The report notes that school enrollments are expected to climb very rapidly during the next decade. In addition, more emphasis is being placed on alleviating school housing pressures by transporting pupils to facilities where space may be available. As a result, Foundation analysts expect that pupil transportation costs will continue to rise rapidly in the years ahead. Under current Utah law, state funds are furnished to transport pupils enrolled in kindergarten through grade six who live one and and one-half miles or more from school, for pupils in grades seven through twelve who live two or more miles from school, and for certain designated handicapped pupils without regard to distance from school. In addition, local funds may be used to transport students where walking constitutes a hazardous condition, and for the transportation of students to interscholastic activities, for night activities, and for approved educational field trips. Most of the pupil transportation funds in Utah currently are being provided by specific legislative appropriations for transportation. In 1980-81 the legislative appropriations for pupil transportation amounted to $13,794,000, or 76 percent of the $18,105,890 spent for pupil transportation services. The legislative transportation contribution was raised to $16,175,000 for 1981-82 and to $17,529,720 for 1981-83. Not included in these totals were expenditures for capital outlay and amounts spent by the State School Board and other agencies for supervision of the program. The Foundation study concluded that the Utah program generally provided a safe, efficient system of transporting pupils to and from school. Buses, such as this linn? owned by Sevier School District, take a slicable chunk of school budgets. Trans-. portation of students in rural areas is matched by many in urban areas which also transport many students. |