enlarge Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer

Paul Emery, a School Administrative District 6 mechanic, adds oil to a school bus during a 2,000-mile servicing at the Bonny Eagle Bus Transportation Depot. The district has 66 buses, 11 minibuses and four mechanics.

enlarge Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer

Doug Havu, SAD 6 mechanic foreman, inspects the exhaust system on a school bus. A new state law requires the district to cut transportation costs by 5 percent.

enlarge Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer

Paul Emery, a School Administrative District 6 mechanic, adds oil to a school bus during a 2,000-mile servicing at the Bonny Eagle Bus Transportation Depot. The district has 66 buses, 11 minibuses and four mechanics.

enlarge Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer

Doug Havu, SAD 6 mechanic foreman, inspects the exhaust system on a school bus. A new state law requires the district to cut transportation costs by 5 percent.

EDITOR'S NOTE

THIS IS ONE in a continuing series of stories by the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram that looks at the implications of Maine's school district consolidation law.

TRANSPORTATION COSTS

School transportation costs rose by 45 percent between 1995 and 2005, unadjusted for inflation; while the number of students using public school transportation services dropped by 11 percent in that time.

It takes 66 buses, 11 minibuses, four mechanics, 67 bus drivers, a dispatcher, a secretary, a transportation manager and a budget of $2.1 million to do the job.

Now the school district, home to the largest public school bus fleet in Maine, is being told to do it for less.

"I don't know how to, to be very honest," said Steve Lambert, the district's transportation manager. "I would be more than happy for anyone to come in, do an audit and show me how."

His words are being echoed by school administrators across the state who are searching for ways to cut costs in their transportation budgets. Under the state's new law consolidating school districts, the amount of money the state gives to school districts for transportation will drop 5 percent next year.

The percentage of the decrease will vary by school district. In Lambert's district, School Administrative District 6, the budget decrease could be in the $35,000-to-$40,000 range.

The problem, many school administrators say, is that they've already squeezed the inefficiencies out of their departments. With rising fuel prices and insurance costs, the only way they'll be able to save money is to cut bus service. That could mean longer bus rides, longer walks to bus stops or school, and fewer extracurricular bus trips, they predict.

Transportation costs are one of four areas targeted for savings in the sweeping school consolidation law. The law, passed by the Legislature in June, is aimed at reducing school administration costs by consolidating the state's 290 school districts into about 80 new districts. The state is also reducing state aid for special education and facilities management by 5 percent and school administration by 47 percent. The reductions begin July 1, 2008, a year before the deadline for school districts to consolidate.

State education officials believe Maine's public school transportation systems are filled with waste and that modern technology can help trim the fat.

"We have been told by transportation directors that 5 percent is a conservative estimate. They believe they can find more than that in savings," said David Connerty-Marin, spokesman for Maine's Department of Education.

School transportation expenses, which account for 5 percent of the total amount spent on public education in Maine, have risen steadily over the past decade. While the number of students taking the bus has dropped, the statewide cost to transport pupils to and from school increased by 14 percent, adjusted for inflation, between 1995 and 2005. In 2005, the last year available, school districts spent $80.8 million, or an average $2.33 a mile statewide, transporting students, Maine Department of Education data show.

State subsidies to local school districts for transportation costs are distributed according to a complicated formula that takes into account both the density of roads and miles driven in the district. For many school districts, such as SAD 6, state aid accounts for only a small percentage of the overall transportation budget.

Some experts say real savings can be achieved by switching to alternative fuels. Lennie Goff, transportation director of SAD 47, which includes the towns of Belgrade, Oakland, Rome and Sidney, shaved $5,000 off his department's fuel costs by switching to biofuel this year. Using computer software that sets bus routes, he has cut 80,000 miles from the 445,000 miles his buses used to travel each year.

He is also trying to save money by performing more vehicle maintenance in-house rather than contracting out work or sharing a maintenance department with other school districts.

Goff, president of the Maine Association for Pupil Transportation, said his organization is trying to find a way to...