As expected, a number of people addressed the school board last night regarding the change in bus service — nearly all from Sunshine Playschool, which provides before and after school care to elementary students.

Because of a change in state law, the 15-passenger vans that most daycares use will no longer be permitted after January 1. Thus, Sunshine sold their vehicle, planning for their Willowbrook elementary students to ride the bus — but they did so four days before the May 30 Board decision to eliminate bus service within a 1-mile radius of the schools.

However, vehicles with a capacity of less than 10 people are not affected; there’s still the option to use a minivan, SUV, etc. For daycares with a large number of students to transport that would not be easy, requiring either multiple vehicles or multiple trips, but it would be better than the current situation.

From the last speaker’s remarks, there’s evidently some confusion (no surprise here) about the State’s reimbursement for student transportation under the BEP. The reality is, the State reimburses Oak Ridge Schools about 52% of the cost of actual riders who live more than 1.5 miles from the school. Of course, in a city the size of Oak Ridge, that’s a minority of the kids, especially for the elementary schools.

The last speaker apparently believed that the State funds bus service for all children who live more than 1.5 miles from the school, whether or not they ride the bus. He wanted to know where the money was going, since his child attends Sunshine and is not eligible for bus service to and from the daycare, but would be eligible to and from home.

He was right about one thing though: if this continues, Oak Ridge will lose its standing as one of the best school systems in the nation. When fixed and mandated costs — things like electricity, fuel, insurance and participation in the state retirement program — rise at rates much higher than the cost of living, we cannot continue to offer the same services when we do not have the funding to even maintain the status quo.

While we did receive a 4.5% increase in funding from the City, costs in the regular instruction program rose 5.3%. “Regular instruction program” is things like teachers and books — the basics. Our mandated State Retirement expenditure just for the regular instruction program rose 21.2%, or $182,784. Electricity went up 20%. Natural gas went up 45%.

The City increased funding by 4.5%… and thinks that should be enough.

I have to give credit to Stacy Myers, who spoke on behalf of Girls Inc. He asked for one of two solutions: to provide bus service to elementary students who participate in Girls Inc. after school programs, or to have someone watch over the several Willowbrook students who attend that program until one of their vehicles can get to the school to pick them up. At least he presented a viable option, rather than an unattainable demand.

Although there are almost no school systems in Tennessee that provide bus service to all students as we have up until this year, something has been taken away, and it hurts. I’m no less concerned about student safety than any one of the parents sitting in the audience last night, because I’m a mom too, first and foremost. It bothers me. A lot.

It bothers me that the schools receive only a passing mention in the City’s strategic plan, in a city that has always valued providing the best in public education. It bothers me that Council members who campaigned on educational excellence can’t see that the restricted funding is causing very real harm — and no, it’s not a political stunt. Our books are open, and any board member or administrator would be more than happy to assist, if needed, with explaining the complexities of the funding sources, restrictions on the use of funding from various sources, and why we were forced to cut bus service.

It’s not all the City’s fault: the State does a poor job of funding education statewide. I’m personally working very hard on that. But it’s not new. What is new — at least in the last several years — is the City’s approach to prioritizing the needs of the school system relative to other city services and the tax rate.

For years, cuts have been hidden in areas that didn’t outwardly affect anyone, mainly using money from savings in the fund balance. Our savings is very nearly gone, and we can’t hide the cuts any longer.

Council members will tell you that cutting bus service was the School Board’s decision, and that is true, but we are legally obligated to balance the budget. Unfortunately, few seem to recognize that while we bear all the blame for the cuts, they have complete control over a significant portion of our revenue.

City Council could have prevented this cut by funding our request. It might have been as simple as only buying half of the city vehicles they budgeted to replace; that would have been more than enough.