BUSING CUTS EYED BY DISTRICT SCHOOLS MUST TRIM MILLIONS.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Needing to pare $4.7 million from their budget, Palmdale School District officials are thinking of eliminating buses to some schools and stepping up enforcement of bus-transportation eligibility rules.

Discontinuing busing for students who attend Ana Verde, Buena Vista and Cactus schools, the district's so-called regional schools of choice, would, with other steps, save the district $857,000 annually.

``I don't think (parents) will like it,'' Superintendent Nancy Smith said. ``We have an estimate that this will save us $800,000. That's fewer people we have to look at laying off.''

The district needs to cut costs because of $800 million in midyear budget cuts in state education funding, less money from operational grants, and not enough state cost-of-living allowance to cover increased costs, officials said.

District administrators presented a draft plan at Tuesday's board meeting. The plan also calls for changing 13 of the district's 119 attendance zones, potentially shifting more than 450 students to different schools.

District administrators will finalize the plan in the next several weeks, send off letters to parents, and hold meetings at schools to discuss the changes. The changes are scheduled to take effect in July.

Currently about 400 students take a bus to and from Ana Verde, Buena Vista and Cactus schools, officials said.

The district is also looking at ways to make sure only eligible students ride buses, including having a roster of eligible children or a pass system, and moving bus stops, officials said.

The district has a policy against giving bus rides to children who live within a mile of school, but has not strictly enforced it.

There have been instances in which students who live within the one-mile limit walk farther away from the school to get to the nearest bus stop, officials said.

``If the buses are overfull, then we will know somebody is not supposed to be on there,'' Deputy Superintendent Bob Rice said.

Stopping bus transportation to the three schools, enforcing the one-mile limit, and providing transportation only for students in afternoon kindergarten would save the district $857,000 annually.

``We want to maximize transportation resources and increase the number of walk-in students so we can reduce the number of buses and costs that we have out there,'' Rice said.

Rice said changing attendance boundaries is a way of balancing enrollments between schools.

``We have to balance enrollments because they get out of whack. They don't grow at the same rate, so to balance enrollments and to be able to provide adequate facility space at every school, we have to do rezoning,'' Rice said. ``Part of this is preparing for planned development in the community.''