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Yough cuts after-school busing
The district, which previously contracted the State Transit Authority to provide the service, saved roughly $80,000 by canceling it, school board President Richard Mills said at Monday's meeting. The figure equates to about a three-quarter mill savings, Mills said.
"I didn't feel it was right to raise taxes that additional amount," Mills said. "Nobody likes to cut programs, but nobody likes to pay tax increases."
Middle school and high school students must now find their own way home from athletic practices, band rehearsals, school club events and detention periods, Mills said. Student busing to any at-large athletic and band events will continue, however, he said.
"To keep the extracurricular activity runs, we basically would have had to cut an educational program, a teaching position, or another sport," said Mills, adding that most other area school districts have stopped offering the service. "Our hope is that no kids will drop out of extracurricular activities because of this, whether you can carpool with other people or whatever."
The buses, available to students at both schools between 5 and 6 p.m. during the fall months, often went unused, said Yough Middle School Principal Tom Paterline.
"There's anywhere from the maximum seven to 10 kids on the bus," Paterline said.
In other business, the board recommended the district's board of education hire Christopher Ritz as a music teacher for the new academic year at a salary of $36,112.
The next meeting is 7:30 p.m. Aug. 15.
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