School board considers using school trucks as rolling billboards

By Emily Richmond

Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2008 | 2:44 p.m.

Saying that desperate times call for desperate measures, Clark County School Board members agreed today to consider selling advertising space on district food service trucks, a deal that could yield as much as $1.4 million annually.

School buses — and their captive student audiences — will remain off limits to advertisers.

“I probably would not be thinking of this myself if we weren’t in this budget situation,” Jeff Weiler, the district’s chief financial officer, told School Board members at this morning’s meeting.

Any deal would guarantee the district retain “total editorial control” over the content of the advertising, Weiler said.

“I can imagine there’s any number of things that would not be appropriate,” Weiler said.

The district has been forced to cut more than $130 million from its operating budget, because of shortfalls in state revenues.

The proposal came as part of a presentation on ways the district’s transportation department could become self-sustaining. A study by an outside consultant of the bus routes used to transport students didn’t reveal any “major inefficiencies,” Weiler said. Some small changes were recommended to yield modest savings, and have already been put in place.

The district is looking at the possibility of purchasing hybrid buses, and alternative fuels such as compressed natural gas. But those proposals would require an investment by the district at the outset.

The fastest way to raise funds would be to charge students for the right to board the school bus. But that plan didn’t garner much support from the School Board today. One proposal called for charging students $1 per day, excluding children with disabilities (9,000) and children who qualify for free and reduced-priced meals (36,400). But charging the remaining 100,000 bus riders would raise only about $9 million, less than 10 percent of the transportation department’s operating budget. To cover all transportation costs, the district would have to charge students $217 per month.

That’s an unreasonable burden on families, some of whom have five children riding the bus, said School Board member Carolyn Edwards.

Clark County Schools Superintendent Walt Rulffes said he realized the idea of allowing advertising on district vehicles might be unsettling, “but it’s worth taking some of these chances to raise the money.”