PSS to restrict school bus use

Education Commissioner Rita H. Inos said yesterday the Public School System considers minimizing its school bus operations by limiting the transportation service only to students who live long distance away from their schools.

Inos said limiting the school bus use may be a more acceptable alternative to a proposal seeking to charge students for the ride.

Board members Anthony Pellegrino and Marja Lee Taitano earlier proposed that PSS charge students 25 cents each per bus ride as a way of raising additional revenues for the education agency.

CNMI PTA Council legislative affairs officer Roman Benavente objected on Monday to the proposal and suggested that PSS instead stop extending free transportation service to private schools.

Inos said in order for PSS to minimize the bus operation, she would restore the agency’s policy which limits the transportation service to students who live beyond 1.5 miles away from their schools.

“As a matter of policy, we really don’t need to offer bus ride to students who live within 1.5 miles from their school,” Inos said in an interview. “It’s a policy anywhere where public buses are available.”

According to the commissioner’s plan, the number of school buses to be used would be reduced and their trips would be re-routed.

Inos said PSS may also have to cancel the transportation assistance being extended to private schools.

“We have offered free transportation service to private schools as a matter of courtesy to all our kids,” Inos said. “However, we’re starting to feel that this is financially stressful.”

The other proposal presented by Pellegrino and Taitano was to require students to pay a $10-deposit for books loaned to them.

“This is something that I’m seriously considering,” Inos said. “This a good option so that we wouldn’t have to spend money to purchase books that kids don’t take the responsibility to return.”

Paying the deposit, Inos said, might compel the students to take care of the books they borrow from PSS.

“The books belong to everybody. If they damage these books, the students should be responsible,” Inos said.

The commissioner, however, is still assessing the proposal to collect fees for “consumable items” such as workbooks.

“Some can afford it; others cannot especially those who belong to large families. It’s kind of hard to impose something like that for all kids,” Inos said.

On the other hand, she said, PSS may be forced to impose these fees if it couldn’t find other alternatives.

“If we inform parents about the need to pay for these items, they could probably be expected to include that in the priorities in the same way they do when they buy notebooks, rules and other supplies,” Inos said. (MCM)