Schools count riders, push for more funds

Pavel Kirkov, a senior at Union High School, waits for his bus ride home on Thursday. Clark County school districts encouraged students to ride the bus as ridership counts that help determine state funding were conducted. (Vivian Johnson for The Columbian)

Most days, Shahala Middle School sixth-grader Jessica Moroye, a slender 11-year-old, takes the short school bus ride to her east Vancouver home.

It’s not much fun, especially when three — even four or five — young students jam into bus each seat, she said, squinching her face.

That’s one reason why her mother, Debra Moroye, normally drives Jessica and her older brother, Russell, to Shahala each morning, on the way to her own job.

But not this week: Responding to the pleas of Evergreen Public Schools officials, the Moroye siblings are taking the bus during the five days on which bus drivers carefully record the number of riders.

It’s a critical measuring period, each October; for Evergreen and Vancouver district bus managers this week, Battle Ground and Washougal school districts next week. The rider counts, calculated by mathematic “mode” — the most oft-occurring passenger head count at each bus stop, over five consecutive days — determine the amount of state dollars Olympia sends districts to help pay for busing.

“They are riding the bus this week,” Debra Moroye said. “I want the buses to get the funding they need, so maybe (students) aren’t sitting three to a seat.”

It’s a challenging time for school district bus managers.

They say ridership has climbed significantly, starting last spring when gasoline prices began to soar. In several cases, managers have had to rejigger or add new routes due to overcrowded buses. That includes the Fisher’s Landing area where the Moroyes live.

At Union High School, buses also depart more full, bulked up by many junior and senior students who no longer drive themselves each day. It’s a common trend across Clark County, officials report.

“Gas is too much, that’s a big one,” said Pavel Kirkov, 18. The Union senior last year drove his 2000 Jeep Cherokee regularly, at least until spring. “Eight cylinders,” he explained, which means not-so-good fuel economy.

Now, Kirkov often carpools with friends. But many afternoons, he rides Evergreen’s No. 233 bus to near East Fourth Plain Road and 162nd Avenue, he said. He’ll splurge for gas and drive some when his restaurant paycheck clears, he said.

Meantime, the gap between busing costs and what Clark County school districts receive from the state — millions of dollars in some cases — is only widening, district officials say.

The Evergreen district was shorted by 37 percent during the 2006-07 school year, or more than $3.2 million, Superintendent John Deeder said. Covering the chronic bus underfunding now eats up more than 10 percent of Evergreen’s voter-appoved local school tax levy, he said.

In Camas, the 2006-07 shortfall was even worse, at 40 percent. Battle Ground recorded a 39.3 percent gap. Other local districts include Vancouver (32.3 percent), Hockinson (29.4 percent), Green Mountain (42.3 percent) and Washougal (20.5 percent). A four-district bus cooperative that includes La Center and Ridgefield lagged by 20 percent.

“It is a long-standing problem,” Deeder said. The state’s bus funding formula hasn’t been updated since the early 1980s, he and others note. Using concentric circles drawn around schools to measure distance, the formula favors rural districts where roads are more straight and far-flung students have fewer commuting options (read: Eastern Washington).

Bigger school districts up and down Washington’s Interstate 5 corridor are badly losing out, officials say. That’s where more students can catch a lift from job-commuting parents, schoolmates who drive, or use alternate transportation.

“Large, urban districts do not fare well,” said Gary Thomsen, Evergreen bus manager. In many cases, he said, “These kids who live one-to-two miles from school, we just don’t get at all.” Yet, routes still need to be run to pick up those who do rely on the bus.

In the huge, sprawling Battle Ground district, which currently is underfunded by about $2.5 million, “You can’t drive a straight line out to Yacolt or Amboy,” said finance director Mary Beth Lynn. “(The formula) doesn’t take into account the actual road mileage,” she said.

To compound matters, the state collects counts only of morning and midday (kindergarten, vocational or special education) riders. Thomsen said morning ridership in Clark County is lower than during afternoons, thanks mostly to those parent rides, which further skews the data.

That’s why getting each frequent and sporadic rider on the morning bus during this October stretch is so critical. Districts have sent the word to homes through school newsletters, fliers and other means.

And don’t blame Thomsen for an apparently successful rain dance to usher in this week’s chilly air and showers. Warm, sunny weather is a killer for ridership, easily luring 5 to 10 percent of students to walk or bike instead, he noted.

“It can be huge,” Thomsen said. “The weather is the No. 1 thing that can help us. Good weather at the wrong time can be difficult, (costing) thousands, tens of thousands of dollars,” he said.