Peabody school board resets bus program cap

PEABODY – The Peabody School Committee reconsidered their last decision to set a cap for the city’s Pay to Ride bus program, which offers transportation at a cost for students living within the designated walking zone.Long-time School Committee member Dave McGeney made a motion at their last meeting to limit the burden on families with more than two children by creating a cap of $300 per household. Tuesday night, however, fellow committee member Beverley Ann Griffin Dunne suggested raising the limit to $320 to keep in line with the current rate in place. The board approved her motion unanimously.Typically, families would be charged $160 a year, the equivalent of $1 a day, per child for them to ride the bus if space was available. For a family of four, that could have meant dishing out $640.Last year, the program saw an average of two applications per household, totally an average cost of $320. And, according to School Business Manager Mike Musto, the Pay to Ride program brought in $6,000 to the School Department.Also last year, 100 students applied for a chance at one of the 80 seats available. Substantially fewer requests were made this year. Only 34 applications were received prior to the program’s start date of Oct. 1. Fourteen of those requests were granted free admittance due to financial hardships.Pay to Ride was initiated as a voluntary program prior to the city’s institution of general transportation fees. A prorated refund is available to those families who move out of the city, however, not to those whose children’s misbehavior lead to the loss of their bus privilege.In their continuous effort to reduce costs to residents, the School Committee also placed a cap on general bus transportation fees. When they were first implemented last September, the rate was set at $100 per student with a $200 household cap. A reduced rate was also provided for those in need of financial assistance. The same remains in place for the 2008-2009 school year.So far, the school bus pass fees and Pay to Ride fees have brought in an estimated $196,000, just $4,000 shy of what was anticipated. The additional money generated does not serve as free money; rather it offsets the costs of transportation to the city, said Musto.