North Olympic Peninsula public school districts are taking measures to save fuel without cutting bus service for students, unlike many districts throughout the nation.
Budget-busting diesel fuel costs — which saw diesel fuel jumping to $4.50 per gallon in many places, 36 percent more than a year ago — have districts across the nation eliminating school bus routes or cutting back on stops to save money.
In California, districts are eliminating busing for thousands of students. Some districts in Washington state, as well as in Idaho and Maryland and elsewhere are consolidating bus stops, canceling field trips and forcing students to walk longer distances to school to control costs.
Peninsula school personnel say they don’t plan to cut school bus routes or stops any time soon, but that they have taken measures to save fuel as prices rose over the last two years.
Instead of making stops more sparse or eliminating a route altogether, the districts are asking their drivers to conserve fuel by watching their idling time, cutting down on warm-up time in the morning and looking at where they are parking buses.
“We are looking at finding a place to park buses in Port Townsend because the school bus barn is in Chimacum, and it would be good to park them in town,” said Diana Post, operations manager for the transportation department for both the Port Townsend and Chimacum school districts.
“That way we won’t drive back and forth.
“We also started fueling up at a station closer to town.”
