PORT ANGELES — Free transit bus passes are guaranteed through August 2007 for North Olympic Peninsula Skills Center students.
The decision, which is seen to alleviate a major roadblock to boosting enrollment at the skills center, was made on Monday by a consensus of Clallam Transit System commissioners.
The skills center was paying almost $20,000 a year for the bus passes, but could no longer afford it after this semester because of a $66,405 deficit caused by lagging enrollment.
“Because these students would be without transportation, we should do everything in our power to make that happen,” said Clallam Transit Commissioner Gary Braun, a Port Angeles city councilman.
Relief to school districts
Providing the bus passes free to students comes as a relief to members of the five-school-district consortium who feared cutting out the vouchers would only exacerbate a worsening enrollment situation.
The consortium is made up of the Sequim, Port Angeles, Crescent, Cape Flattery and Quillayute Valley school districts.
It had already reduced the skills center’s 2005-06 budget of almost $1.1 million to $722,113 in October because of low enrollment spurring low revenues from the state.
However, the cuts weren’t enough to compensate for the lack of students this past semester, and another round of cuts totaling $50,212 was approved by the superintendents council two weeks ago.
“As far as I’m concerned, you all are heroes today,” Port Angeles Superintendent Gary Cohn told the transit commissioners.
