By Jared Murray and Paige Thompson

This past fall Franklin Township Community School Corporation in Indiana made a controversial move by outsourcing their busing services in an effort to save money. The real controversy, however, came when the school corporation added that it wanted to charge students for using these services, with the yearly cost being over $400 per child. While the outsourcing of bus services itself is allowed, the act of charging for these newly outsourced services is unconstitutional.

The situation in Franklin Township is being closely watched by many other school districts, but for different reasons. Some districts that have been considering outsourcing their services themselves are watching to see how things work out, while others, like the New Albany-Floyd Country Public School Corporation are watching to ensure that it does not happen in their district.  “[We] empathize with them. We constantly monitor our budget,” said chief business officer/ treasurer Fred McWhorter II, who said there are no plans to outsource busing services in NA-FC schools.

McWhorter said school officials are doing everything they can to preserve the busing system as it currently is while being financially responsible.  “We’ve instituted GPS technology to optimize our routes to reduce time. We use what is called Versatrans, our transportation routing software.  We also have started to buy our diesel fuel in bulk,” said McWhorter.

The school system has also started to become more self sufficient with transportation.  “[We] will be able to provide all of our own fuel, [with a new] fuel tank in the lower parking lot behind Galena [Elementary],” said McWhorter. With the building of the proposed fuel tank, the busing fleet will eventually be able to avoid filling up at gas stations completely, therefore saving money on the fuel.

“Because the budget comes from state funds, you have to go where that takes you,” said principal Janie Whaley.  Because of this, it is important that the corporation has a self-sufficient transportation system, to prevent a situation like that of Franklin Township. And for those who are worried about the possibility of no more transportation, don’t worry. “Right now we’re going to continue with our own transportation,” added Whaley.