Lakewood Board of Ed Analyzing Busing Costs

            The members of the Lakewood school district’s Board of Education held a meeting to discuss the financial efficiency of transportation costs in an effort to weed out every possibility of overspending. This is part of an ongoing campaign to overhaul the state’s funding formula and would further prove that Lakewood’s budget issues are due to the unique demographics, as the state monitor has stated previously.

            “The Board of Ed owns a number of buses,” Board President Moshe Bender said, “while many other routes are outsourced to independent companies. We are trying to pinpoint the exact cost of running our own buses, including driver salaries, benefits, and bus maintenance, so that we can determine if it is worthwhile. If it is more cost efficient, we will push to buy more buses, and if it is not, we would roll them back and start outsourcing more routes.”

            The meeting took place last Thursday night and lasted close to four hours.

            “We still have not come to a solid conclusion,” he said. “However, we will see this through till the end.”

{Matzav.com}