I want to provide families with an update about bus transportation for next school year. Given the reality we are facing with our overall budget situation for next year while still wanting to be able to retain the amount of buses needed to sufficiently transport our students to and from school each day, we needed to go back to a fee-based pay and ride system. There will be a $375 per student fee to ride the bus in 2025-2026, with a family cap of $750. Those eligible for free and reduced lunch would be eligible for reduced rates for bus transportation.
Per our bus transportation guidelines, elementary students living more than 0.25 miles away from their school, and secondary students living more than 0.5 miles away from their school are eligible for bus transportation. Additionally, any student in Kindergarten through Grade 6, who lives more than 2 miles from the school they are entitled to attend, shall be eligible for transportation at no cost (MGL., c71, sec 68). The full, revised bus transportation guidelines, approved at Tuesday’s School Committee meeting, can be found by clicking here.
A new contract for bus transportation was also approved on Tuesday. Only one vendor, our current provider First Student, put in a bid. The contract the district signed is for three years and while the cost increase is reasonable given the market right now, it is still a substantial increase to transportation costs, further necessitating the need to have transportation fees. In fact, the cost for transportation under this new contract is $31,000 more than what we budgeted for when our proposed FY26 budget was approved by the School Committee (we had to submit a budget before this contract was settled), so we will already need to find additional funds on July 1 when the new fiscal year starts.
More information will be provided to families about when the bus transportation application period will take place. At this point, I simply wanted to make you aware of the situation.
Finally, I will be holding office hours to discuss the proposed FY26 budget for the Stoughton Public Schools. Families, staff, Town Meeting representatives, Finance Committee members, and community members are invited. The first session is scheduled for this Saturday, March 15, 2025 from 10-11:30am at the District Office, 31 Pierce St. Please read this letter for more information and refer to the graphic below for a full schedule of office hours.
Have a great weekend.
Sincerely,
Joseph F. Baeta, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools
Stoughton Public Schools
