Bigfork School District replaces activity bus

When Bigfork High School traded in its

activity bus for a brand new one this year during a time of budget

cuts it raised a few concerns from tax payers in town, but

according to those at the school’s district office it really

shouldn’t as it didn’t cost tax payers a dime.

Funds for the bus came from the debt

service fund, not the transportation fund. Schools are allowed to

depreciate the value of their buses annually and levy that amount.

They use that account for things like bus maintenance and to buy

new busses when needed. The transportation fund can only be used

for yellow school buses transporting students to and from school.

Expenses from other uses such as field trips and activities come

out of the general fund.

This year, not unlike many other years,

Bigfork schools did not depreciate any of its buses and therefore

didn’t levy anything. Part of the reason the district decided to do

this was that there was already enough money in the account. In

fact, there was enough to trade in the old activity bus for a new

one and still have enough in the account to purchase a yellow

school bus if that need arose.

“We want to work hard to keep those tax

dollars as low as we can and still keep the vehicles that transport

our students safe,” said Bigfork School District business manager

Eda Taylor.

Schools are allowed to use money from

the debt service fund to replace an activity bus, but may not use

the money to add an additional bus or purchase a first activity

bus.

“Funds at what they can be used for are

very specific,” Taylor said. “(For example,) it’s the general fund

that pays for education needs like classroom teachers.”

Bigfork bought its first activity bus

mostly through donations and money from the general fund. At the

time it was one of the only Class A schools in the state that did

not have an activity bus. The school purchased a heavily used

activity bus at that time to get its foot in the door with the

trade-in option. Two years later the school upgraded to a nicer,

though still used, activity bus using the debt service fund.

When the school traded that bus in over

the summer it had a trade-in value of $30,000 and the district

opted to purchase the high school its first brand new activity bus

for an additional $123,500.

The decision to purchase the new

activity bus was not initiated based on the fact that there was

money available for it. The former bus was in continual need of

repair and was costing the district money, and sometimes causing

safety concerns.

“We wanted to make sure that we were

putting our kids who were traveling for several hours on a bus that

was safe and wouldn’t have problems,” said Bigfork superintendent

Dr. Cynthia Clary. “The old bus was getting to a point where it was

starting to have a lot of issues.”

In addition to the fact that the new

bus will not be as likely to cost the school money for repairs, it

will also be better for the environment. The new activity bus is

the first bus that Bigfork schools has purchased that is in line

with the new federal emission laws that came out in 2010.

Although a lot of schools have

purchased over-sized coach buses in recent years, Bigfork schools

decided to go with a simpler model as it has with the past two

activity buses, which are upgraded yellow school buses with

different paint jobs and decals. Although the activity busses have

nicer seats and a DVD player with multiple monitors.

“It’s a good compromise because it’s a

nice comfortable bus, but it isn’t over the top,” said

transportation director Reenie Clock. “Also, because it is a Blue

Bird bus we can do the maintenance ourselves, which also saves

money.”

There are very few feature changes to

note between the former bus and the new one. The over seat luggage

area is in a slightly different rack style and it provides

individual lights for passengers that weren’t available on the

previous bus. The new bus seats 47 people, which is three more than

the old bus. Also, because it is a newer model it has a curved

windshield and mirrors in slightly different positions for better

visibility.