Meeting Info
The Hamilton County Board of Education will meet for a strategic planning session at Central High School tonight and Saturday. Tonight’s meeting is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. and Saturday’s session begins at 8 a.m.
The feasibility of Hamilton County schools bringing busing in-house and expanding the role of its pool of independent bus drivers was discussed Thursday night during the school board’s meeting.
The district could save about $1.9 million a year by taking over busing, Assistant Superintendent of Finance Christie Jordan told the board. It would cost about $12.7 million a year for the district to run buses and continue contracting with its 49 independent bus owners/operators, according to Jordan’s calculations.
School board member Rhonda Thurman was quick to point out that the estimate does not include what it would cost the district to buy a bus fleet, which is expected to cost about $10 million for used buses and more than $20 million for new ones.
“Every time we try to do something ourselves, it doesn’t seem to work out,” Thurman said, cautioning the board about unforeseen costs and hurdles they’ll likely face taking over transportation.