District looks for solutions as students jam onto buses

Terry Webster

Thursday, Sept. 6, 2001 | 11:47 a.m.

Overcrowding isn't just for classrooms in the Clark County School District anymore.

This year school buses are getting in on the act.

The overcrowding is so severe that the district will either have to consider buying more buses or changing the starting time at some schools, Transportation Director Ron Despenza said.

As many as 130 students are attempting to board buses built to accommodate up to 90 students, Despenza said.

Bass Elementary School students found out how crowded a bus could get Tuesday. A bus preparing to leave the school had three students to a seat, the maximum number allowed.

Then there were four students to a seat, then five. Then they just didn't fit anywhere.

Seeing them packed in like sardines, the bus driver called for help.

"It was too overcrowded," Bass Elementary Principal Teddie Brewer explained. "We had to call in for another bus."

The new bus arrived about 4 p.m., took half of the students, then tagged along behind the first bus as students were dropped off. School lets out at 3:20.

The first bus had to wait for the second one, because the bus driver providing the relief wasn't familiar with the route, Brewer said.

But Bass Elementary is not alone.

Other schools are having similar problems, Despenza said.

School officials say part of the problem stems from the district's rapid growth. The sixth-largest school district in the country, Clark County expects its enrollment to jump to 246,000 students this year. That's an increase of about 15,000 students over last year.

Although official enrollment figures are not complete, reports are already coming in of high school math classes with upward of 45 students, and gym classes with as many as 65 students, said Mary Ella Holloway, president of the Clark County Education Association, the teachers union.

Despenza said moving all middle schools to a nine-month calendar this year, instead of a year-round calendar, is the biggest cause of the overcrowded buses. The result is that more students are being transported to school at the same time.

School officials are still sorting through the exact number of bus routes and students affected by the overcrowding.

Despenza has requested 20 new school buses, Chief Financial Officer Walt Rulffes said. That would cost about $1.7 million, an amount the district has not budgeted.

With the district's growth, purchasing 60 new buses a year is a given, Rulffes said, and that does not even cover replacing old buses.

Typically, the district spends about $10 million each year for new buses, he said.

Even if the district buys more buses, it probably would not receive them until December.

"First, we have to make sure all of the routes are being handled as efficiently as possible," Rulffes said.

Another problem, Despenza said, is that parents did not register their children for bus service. The district requires students to register for bus service every year, even without a change of address, so that bus routes can be planned for the right number of students.

As of last week, only about one-half of the 92,000 students eligible for bus service had registered, Despenza said, but many more students were boarding buses.

Only students living two or more miles from their schools are eligible for bus services from the district. All others must find their own means of getting to school.

At a meeting tonight for parents to air concerns about school transportation, Despenza said he expects overcrowded buses to be among the concerns raised. Families living just under the district's two-mile busing limit is often another concern, he said.

During budget talks in February and March, district officials looked at extending the busing limit to three miles for high school students.