announce the cuts in routes -- we need to be able to offer at that same time what options we are going to give them. i am still not hearing it. i am not hearing what we are going to guarantee families that are losing transportation they depend on. we know some families are going to lose transportation next year that they have been depending on, whether it is morning or afternoon transportation. i am still not hearing anything clear or in writing of any of this documentation about what we are going to tell them and give them. >> some of the information is in here on page 5 that talks about alternatives to yellow bus transportation. we have been talking with other agencies in the city that provide alternatives to yellow bus transportation. we're going to have that information available for them. there are a lot of parent- initiated resources that we are going to let parents know about. for example, there is the 511

school matching system run by the state that parents can use. there is also the safe route to school information. there are walking school buses and by trains and various other resources. then there are many services available. -- muni services available. in order for families to be able to choose another school, we will also share information about that. this is an unpleasant situation where because of the budget crisis we need to cut services. it is also realigning services, because some of the resources now are being dedicated to -- there is a limit to the resources available. current transportation infrastructure is not aligned with the board's current commitments. even if we weren't reducing the amount of money we were spending on transportation, we would have to shift away certain services to make sure that families that

are a part of the board's priorities in the strategic plan are receiving access to those resources. so it is very unpleasant. i acknowledge that. if there is anything the board would like us to guarantee, or if there are other resources that are going to be made available from another place, we could share that information. commissioner norton: ideally, what i am requesting is that there be something in writing in the policy that says if you lose your yellow bus transportation we will guarantee a spot at another school where you can either get transportation that you can get to without that, or -- i do not think we are going to do that. i am just saying we need something in writing for families. you are going to make this announcement in a month. i do not know how many schools are going to be affected. i do not know how many parents

are families are going to be affected. what i do not want to happen is what always seems to happen. we make an announcement. principals tell their school communities. people get upset and come down here and give public comment. ideally, we will prepare in advance some kind of resolution, or have some kind of meeting with families at the affected schools so that it is not just gone from the board level them to the schools and that are affected to scurry around in subcommittees and be more effective in organizing. we need to assist families. if we are not going to give them a guarantee -- either space in an off site program or transportation to another program or a space at another school, if you cannot get your child to school because your bus is not there -- if we cannot offer guarantees because of our situation, we need to at least

be really proactive about how we are joined to work with families that are affected by this next year. commissioner fewer: a response to that, i think -- when the board says to cut transportation, the inevitable thing is that people are going to lose transportation. it is a difficult situation. i think parents will come and be mad anyway. i think parents who depend on transportation -- when you are on the board, people yell at you a lot. i think it is just the time we are in. this is a horrible situation. in an ideal situation, we would get transportation to everyone. i do not think anybody wants to get up an hour early and dragged their kids to the bus. i do not think it is feasible to

guarantee parents placement in the school near you after we went through this whole student assignment thing. i just think the ugly fact and truth is that we do not have the money to provide transportation anymore to everybody that we have them. we have to cut it. we are going to try to cut it in the least painful way possible and meet the need of the goals of the board. it is a very difficult situation. i think it is a very hard situation. those of us on the budget committee were briefed a little on next year's budget and what it is going to look like. i would be surprised if we are able -- i am even somewhat surprised we are able to keep any transportation at all, to be honest with you. i do not know how we are going to do it. unless this board is willing to cut something else. i am willing to look at other things we can cut, but some

people on the board are unwilling to do some hard cuts on stuff. i think we together could look at it and start slashing other things in the budget. we could keep some of the transportation that way. but again, this is a really hard situation. we cannot even offer to low income families that we will give you a bus pass. we spent $11,000 on bus passes as it is and cannot even meet the needs of our homeless students. it is what it is. we are underfunded. commissioner mendoza: -- commissioner maufas: i am well prepared for somebody to come to the board of education speaking around this. when we try to shift things that have been in place for so, so long and have done so much for general well-being, there is going to be a wave of push back. and i know that. this is one of those moments as

well. it is and not paid plus situation for families -- it is not a plus situation for families for them to work and get their kids to school -- to interrupt that worked-out regularity that they experience day today and try to devise something that is going to support them. i know what that is like. this is one of those things. we are going to continuously hear the stress it is causing. this is some of the work we have to do. what i would like if possible, ms. o'keefe and mr. gardiner --

i think lots of families are so used to having something that it is necessary to them. how are we going to develop what is necessary versus something that has been in place so long it is part of your everyday -- your child going to school and getting picked up from school. do you fall into the category were that is unnecessary, versus someone in special education who has mental and physical challenges? the bus is necessary. that is a necessary component to their everyday school activity. how are we discerning for families? when i really look at it, it is something i have always had, and i believe it is necessary, but when i start looking at the criteria, i have come to discern

it is not necessary. i fall into that. this is not necessary for me, and i am going to have to figure out another way to get my kid to school. it is not necessary for my child's existence. have we figured out those things that can help families self assess whether they fall into the necessary busing versus unnecessary busing? i desire it reverses i need it -- versus i need it? >> we are developing the framework for that. the policy framework the board is going to vote on tomorrow talks about the goals and objectives for transportation infrastructure. we are using that as the from work and looking at the data and the information to get a better sense of what the best way to design future transportation infrastructure is that will

support this. i think having transparency around that is going to be really important for families. but commissioner norton was saying about making sure -- when we know what the future is going to look like what it is and why it is, so we are not just saying to a family or a school that they are not getting transformation -- transportation, but provide a full context for why the changes are being made. the families want to request something, we should use a transparent framework and do it consistently. i think that that is the approach we are going to take, to be as transparent as possible, to consistently apply the goals of the policy to any decisions. commissioner yee: could i just add a little bit along the lines of this discussion? one of the things that we have

talked a lot about in staff working group is this point about how to get a better understanding of the impact on the families, especially in the short term for next year, in case it wasn't crystal clear what these efforts would look like on page 11. the direct mail to the families that are currently served by the existing routes -- that is a mechanism for us to try to ascertain. i do not know if that is going to be through a scientific self assessment. chairperson wynns: we do not know who they are. commissioner yee: we are gathering information through --

chairperson wynns: schools. we are trying to get every family who uses the school bus to tell the school. >> 49 of the schools and at 2800 of the 3000 riders. we're almost there. chairperson wynns: you are pretty sure they've got everybody? >> we understand there are teachers who ride the bus. we gave each teacher a classless with the column and they could check off whether the student wrote in the morning, afternoon, or both. commissioner yee: once we do make the determination of the routes for 2011-12, and keep in mind that what we are planning for the time being is a net reduction of six of the existing 44 buses -- that could be a reduction of six buses. it could be a reduction upper -- of more than that in order to

allow some movement towards the final version or the future vision. but that is going to be very detailed information. frankly, dennis, frank, and the teams of the transportation department are going to be using this data from existing families to really see what the impact will be and how to minimize the impact. at the same time, we are trying to make initial steps toward that future vision. once we have that, that is where discussions with the families in schools comes into play. i think that is what commissioner norton was suggesting, that we do work very specifically with the families at the school communities that may be impacted. we do not know exactly what that is going to look like at this point, but the intention is to take those kind of steps.

it is not just getting a letter or coming to the meetings of the school board. it is doing pro-active out which to inform the communities to include it in the discussions, information about the alternatives or whether it involves ways to get to the light or the school, or to enroll in other feasible settings. all of that, i think, will be clearer once we have recommendations on specific routes to keep them to phase out for next year. all of the process steps that we just mentioned, i think, are going to take place so that we can avoid this feeling of a unilateral surprise to the families that may be impacted.

commissioner mendoza: i am glad we are -- i think this is going to be really important. part of the reason why we set out the student assignment policy the way we did was with the idea we were going to be getting rid of transportation. i am comfortable with that. i think families have historically been able to choose schools because transportation was available. this will also kind of change the behavior of how families choose schools. we are also hoping there will stay within their communities or go to schools that -- why do with our high schools. carpooling and find ways to do that. i think we should also see if we can work with mta to do perhaps some individual bus routes, like informational pieces that we can do for families that get from point a to point b.

perhaps we can work with them in some capacity to provide that information as these letters are going out. not all of us can figure out how to get on to muni.com. i know all the high schoolers and middle schoolers can tell me how to get anywhere, but you know. so there are ways we can try to help minimize the stress around that. i was also wondering -- this is something you and i have had multiple conversations about over the years. we will have regular transportation for our a p students. is there a way that any of our general education on the same route can ride the buses? that way we do not have three kids on a bus because they are iep students and not general at students.

i do not know if there is a way we can fit certain criteria, a certain age. but we have had discussions the around siblings that cannot ride the buses when they have a sibling with an iep even though they go to the same school and are related. that is something we should also consider in terms of accommodating families are kids if there is enough capacity on the bus with our special ed students for students with iep. chairperson wynns: i have a couple questions. the first one is i am hoping that as this information goes out and we have these discussions with the community that i know that we are not -- some of this is something that will happen later. i just think we should make people aware of this. this is the implementation of a new student assignment system. there is not any -- in other words, it is not just in january that we are going to know

everything we know. we are going to know a lot more after march, when we know which schools have how many kids. we are making a lot of presumptions about what is going to happen to these schools, what kind of requests we are born to get, helpful that are going to be. we do not know them yet. if we told parents it is after those times that we will know more -- i do not think we are able to guarantee them a spot in another school that may be more accessible to them, nor will we be able to guarantee them a spot in a different after-school program. but we will make a commitment to sit down with them to try to work it out. that -- my experience is that in those years when we have had, frankly, new venues that made modifications to the student assignment system, that we had a

lot of dissatisfaction and anxiety because it was the first time when the results came out, or in the interim period when we sat down with people and said, "what are your problems? this is where we might have space. this is where we have transportation. here is what the after-school program is." there has been a lot less anxiety. i think there is enough knowledge in the parent community that we actually can accomplish a lot for individuals just by making a commitment to counseling are making people available, or that we are going to have a time when we will look at that, so they do not think this is all the help that are going to get to us. the other thing we have not mentioned here, but we have talked about recently, it is the realignments of the after-school programs. i am hoping that we at least

have that in mind, that we also will say that. that we are working with the city on a major realignment of after-school programs. that we will -- that is one of the -- information we might get from people about how many of them might have trouble accessing the after-school programs they are in. it might give us the ability to get a list of where we need more capacity and initiate new after- school programs or expand some of them. we need to do that, and we need to tell people that we are clear on that and we will look at that when we see with the needs are. in both of these areas, i hope we will be able to say to people we are not just making an announcement that we are moving your transportation and now you are on your own, but that we are aware of these various developments and plan to provide them with some service and

support. these are the kinds of opportunities that we might have to make, some changes that might be helpful to them. i do not know if any of the comments or questions we made you want to answer, or have any responses to. commissioner fewer: how much money are we saving doing this? >> overall, i think the document -- the q&a type document, if you look at the second page of that, indicates the long term budget goal. this is based on how much we currently spend on general ed transportation and what of that could be redirected, or savings could be redirected to other things. if you see the little table, it is a total of about $6 million

in the current year and $2.20 million is dedicated for transportation. in other words, if we do not spend it on transportation, we do not get it. that is the baseline of funding that we would accomplish -- that we would contemplate. in any case, in the future, that is what we tend to spend on transportation. we intend to take $1.40 million that could be redirected. title 1 has a limitation. under current law, under "no child left behind," if we do not spend that on transportation we would need to spend it on private after-school tutoring. that is not free and clear to be repurchased for general purposes. excuse me? >> i was joking when i said i

would rather spend it on transportation. chairperson wynns: the law could change. >> the bullet points right below that indicate what the percentages are of these resources that could be saved or redirected in those two sources. in the short term, if we had a net reduction of six buses next year, that would save about $600,000. it is about $100,000 per general ed bus. chairperson wynns: remember, buses, not routes. the buses have two or three routes. commissioner fewer: next year, we hope to save 600,000? that is what you're telling me? >> i will remind the committee that we had a reduction of six buses in the current year, compared to last year. that was by eliminating all

general at high school routes. that was what was in the budget deficit action plan that the board approved last year. that was a reduction over two years of $1.20 million. a further reduction was not even scored in that plan. this would generate an additional -- chairperson wynns: actual savings for next year. commissioner fewer: did we give counseling to the high school students that normally get transportation? i know those buses were fall. did we give any counseling to them? >> what is very interesting -- and please jump in if i get this wrong -- but what was very interesting is that we did not undertake the kind of activities that we are contemplating with the school community meetings and individualized counseling, and talking about alternatives. and yet i think the word had

gotten out enough about these impending reductions that when the letters were mailed there was very little -- we did not hear much about the impact of these reductions from these families. we were a little bit surprised. commissioner fewer: i was too. i am on a couple of listservs, but nothing. having brought parents over to epc < they do this kind of counseling already -- over to epc, they do this kind of counseling already. they say it the shortest route to each school. the are already doing some of that, and i think pretty extensively. this would be sort of an extension, i guess, of this,

working particularly with schools. i guess the counseling also would change. we must notify parents as they are signing up for schools there will no longer be transportation to the schools and this is the best bus route. thanks. chairperson wynns: i was hoping you would answer a few of these questions. i would get to that later. i particularly am interested in the question of the special ed us, whether we can figure out a way for kids without ieps to ride those routes. one other question -- when you look at the -- i understand this is a little bit misleading. excuse me. the pan map that shows people who ride in the morning only -- 11% is kind of shocking. that does not count those who run morning and afternoon. still, i am not sure we have heard enough information about

routes that are really underutilized in the morning. are we consider writing -- considering the idea of routes we only have in the morning that we do not have in the afternoon? i know that is a new way of planning, but i am wondering if that is a new way we can save money. >> commissioner, let us take the first -- the last comment first. annually, we go through to see what stops we can reduce. we look at what we can combine and eliminate. that is what we are in the middle of right now, is going through accounts, getting back to schools to confirm there are no students. on the day we did a count, we make sure there were not absent or just not using the vehicle for that day. chairperson wynns: is that specific to the idea of having iraq in the afternoon and not in the morning?

-- having a route in the afternoon and not in the morning? >> we take them independent of each other. it is a question. on the one hand, we have a bus picking up students in the morning, but in the afternoon no one was taking it back. we took the stock up. later on, we had parents who use the bus to go to school and not back from school. the reverse is true some places. as long as it was done without any cost, we have put the stops back when feasible. if not, we just cannot. that has been the states. -- the stance. we are continually trying to refine the system down. we are not -- i want to see the money in the classroom, not on four wheels. that has been my position since i have been here. that is what i still try to do.

that is where we would get. there will be hits. there will be severe cuts. we will try to mitigate those as much as possible. we will provide everybody with information as early as possible as to what those cuts are so they can take steps necessary to get their students to school. on the special ed question, the special ed buses to run around the city. most of them are not carrying 20 passengers, their capacity. and a stop might exist in september and be gone in october. then the students will no longer be able to catch that bus, because they cannot keep that bus there and still do the special and --