On Wednesday April 20, Ann Arbor Interim Superintendent Robert Allen announced that the Ann Arbor Public Schools will be cutting all high school busing, including 7th hour busing, and after-school shuttling at middle schools. These specific cuts will save the AAPS roughly $1,428,000. The AAPS is currently facing a $15 million budget deficit. The cuts in transportation will address a portion of this deficit.

“We have approximately 4,700 students that are eligible for transportation at the high school level,” said Superintendent Allen at the School Board meeting. This cut will heavily impact AAPS students who rely on provided busing to get to and from school.

Of those 4,700 students, roughly one third of them actually utilize the transportation in high schools. These proposed cuts leave roughly 1,560 students without AAPS provided transportation. That is approximately the equivalent of the entire Pioneer High School student body.

The Board was not able to go into further detail about the process in which this decision was reached. School board members did, however, express their strong desire for public opinion and feedback.

“We have a list of things for transportation that we considered, and at the end of the day we looked at what would impact the least number of students,” said Superintendent Allen.

Alternative options for transportation have been explored, but the main method being considered is utilizing the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority (AATA), Ann Arbor’s local bus system. “We have been in discussion with AATA for several months. The one concern we have here is that you may have students who reside in the outside area where [AATA bus routes] may not be an opportunity,” said Interim Superintendent Allen.

The AAPS School Board and the AATA have been in conversation about paralleling bus times and routes with school bell schedules around the district, though no definite plans have been made. According to Allen, AATA has agreed to modify their bus schedules if it’s a matter of “four or five minutes.”

AAPS does not plan on entering any sort of contract with AATA. Thus far, subsidies for students who will potentially require this option have not been discussed.

Cutting high school bus systems in the AAPS will also eliminate transportation for school-sanctioned programs, such as athletic events. Board members acknowledge that cutting busing for after-school programs will potentially decrease the amount of student participation in these activities.

Another possible alternative discussed, though not elaborated upon, was carpooling. No definite alternatives have been announced, but the public is strongly encouraged to submit their feedback and ideas.

The transportation cuts were among the most drastic cuts presented at the meeting, but many other proposals were made. The Board said that Pioneer and Huron High Schools would each lose an assistant principal. Skyline High School does not currently have an assistant principal, nor was one ever factored into the AAPS budget.

Additional administrative cuts will include the sharing of principals among pairs of elementary schools. These pairs are: Wines and Abbott Elementary Schools, and Pittsfield and Angell Elementary. Parents are being informed of these proposed cuts by hardcopy letters on Thursday, April 21.This is the alternative to closing an unspecified number of elementary schools.  School closings could have resulted in the redrawing of boundaries across the district.

A reoccurring message throughout the board meeting was to encourage the public to vote for the renewal of the Special Education Millage on May 3rd. This millage would not increase taxes, because it’s renewing a tax already being paid. The proposed budgets from Wednesday’s meeting addressed the current $15 million dollar deficit. “If the Special Education Millage doesn’t pass, we have to dig deeper.” said Superintendent Allen.

The Board Trustees all expressed gratitude towards the thoughtfulness and empathy put into the proposed budget cuts. Though it was acknowledged that keeping the budget cuts out of the classroom is the main priority, at some point, it becomes inevitable.

Board Trustee Irene Patalan emphasized the direct impact that the proposed budget cuts would have across the district. “I could tell that this one was really tough. No one wants to take away from our kids. We’ve done this before but this [budget cut] does require the entire district to feel this. We’re going to feel this one.”

To learn more about the Special Education Millage, please go to the Ann Arbor Citizens Millage Committee Website.