Primer, September 2010

Editor’s note: With the state facing a projected budget deficit next year, schools across Ohio must confront the near certainty that they’ll have to operate with less state funding in the next few years. That means they will need to find new ways to provide services to students and families, and KnowledgeWorks created the Ohio Smart Schools initiative to find efficiencies. One tactic under study is the significant savings potential that could be achieved through shared services, where multiple school districts cooperate to provide services at reduced costs. An area where deep savings possibly could be achieved through shared services is student transportation. In central Ohio, the Education Service Center of Central Ohio has identified transportation redundancies and potential savings for its 16-district service area and is working on a plan to achieve those savings. We asked leaders to share what they have found in the hope that it will spur other areas of the state to rethink how they deliver education services.

Opportunities for savings
through shared transportation

By Bart Anderson and Aaron Reincheld
Educational Service Center of Central Ohio

Leveraging scarce resources through unique partnerships is one of the Educational Service Center of Central Ohio’s highest priorities.

Our agency does this in a variety of ways, often through shared purchasing consortiums or contracted services that allow districts to provide services that could not be offered economically on a local basis by being part of a regional consortium.

By consolidating these services, the ESC saves area districts thousands of dollars and gives school leaders more time to concentrate on other pressing issues.

Our prior work building collaborative service models in special education, business and human resources helps inform new work in areas such as assistive technology and early childhood education.

One area that is ripe for potential savings is shared interdistrict transportation, and the ESC of Central Ohio has been working to play a leadership role to bring the necessary groups together to reach the improved efficiencies that would come with such a system.

Ohio law requires public school districts to provide transportation for charter- and private-school students if the district runs transportation for its own students. If the private or charter school a student wants to attend is within a 30-minute drive of that student’s public school, the district must provide transportation (or pay the student’s family a set amount to cover transportation costs if that’s not feasible).

When providing transportation for students to private or charter schools, neighboring districts often overlap each other’s routes. Arranging transportation under these circumstances can be complex, time consuming and frustrating for all parties involved.

And it involves big money. For example, it is estimated that school districts in Franklin County, Ohio, spend more than $100 million annually transporting students who do not attend their district’s schools.

Eighty-five nonpublic, charter, special needs or alternative schools operate in Franklin County, serving more than 20,000 students, and at least one third of students are brought to school through interdistrict transportation.

The issue continues to escalate as the Columbus metro population climbs and charter school attendance grows. It is estimated that attendance at nonpublic schools will increase around 15 percent by 2030.

The issue of transportation costs caught the attention of the Ohio legislature, which funded a $50,000 study in 2007 for the Mid Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) and the ESC of Central Ohio and to look at potential shared transportation services around Columbus.

Our agency is well positioned for this type of work. The lens of our organization is to be mindful of the implications on a wider scale than an individual school district. We have connections in the for-profit and nonprofit worlds, and we take pride in bringing groups together for collaboration.

In addition to MORPC, the ESC has partnered with several other area organizations over the last few years to outline the potential of shared transportation. In 2009-2010 this included top graduate students in the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University to examine the issue even closer.

Columbus example predicts savings

The Fisher study focused specifically on two private schools, the Columbus School for Girls and St. Charles Preparatory School, both of which are located near Bexley, a suburb on the east side of Columbus. These two schools draw students from 16 area districts, each of which arranged transportation for its students independently.

The study found that the capacity of bus service provided far exceeded the need. In 2008-2009, 43 buses fed about 350 students to these two schools. The Fisher analysis estimated that the number of buses could be cut to 19 while also decreasing the average ride time for students by an average of four minutes if transportation was coordinated among the school districts.

The 2008 study with MORPC and the 2009 study with Fisher each estimated savings of at least $50,000 annually for each bus that can be taken off the road. So cutting 24 buses as Fisher estimates could create an annual savings of $1.2 million.

The ESC is also working with the Franklin County Department of Developmental Disabilities for additional routing analysis.

We are very excited about the potential these studies have exposed, and with our school district partners, we are aggressively pursuing ways to implement logistical improvements while making sure they are appropriate for everyone.

Pilot project begins next year

A small subset of districts will participate in an interdistrict pilot for school year 2011-2012. The pilot will likely consist of four or five matched pairs (similar districts that can be studied to compare outcomes) and is estimated to result in savings of $5-6 million.

If these small samples hold up across multiple districts and multiple schools, the savings across the 16 districts in central Ohio could top $40-50 million.

A few of our member districts are already attempting such arrangements. For one example, the Westerville City, Worthington City and Olentangy Local districts have cooperated to transport students to Columbus Academy, a private K-12 school in a northeast Columbus suburb.

Of course, while there are clear benefits with shared interdistrict transportation, there are some hurdles as well.

Obstacles to similar efforts have included differing time schedules, transfer strategies and equipment availability.

There obviously are also liability issues, district policies, staffing and labor agreements to consider that would take thoughtful effort to sort out.

Both MORPC and Fisher stressed that getting buy-in from administrators and boards at participating districts would be a key to success, and the earlier the better.

However complex, the potential benefits of a shared transportation scenario are too enticing not to pursue. Once such efforts can be implemented, districts, schools, parents and students will be positively affected.

The ESC of Central Ohio, through its past successes in delivering collaborative service models, is well positioned to take a region-wide leadership role in assisting school districts and other nonprofit entities realize the efficiencies in transportation and free up funds for other critical services.

About the Authors

Bart Anderson is superintendent and Aaron Reincheld is communications supervisor of the Educational Service Center of Central Ohio, which accelerates the missions of school districts in Delaware, Franklin and Union counties, serving more than 200,000 school children in 25 school districts. Through direct instruction and quality professional development, the agency partners with districts to improve education for all students, particularly those with special needs. The ESC offers robust educational consultancy through a growing list of programs including instructional coaching, administrative counseling, professional employment services and business services.

About Ohio Smart Schools

To help educators figure out how to do more with less, state leaders asked KnowledgeWorks to lead a comprehensive review of Ohio’s K-12 education system to find efficiencies while maintaining a focus and investment on improving student achievement. The resulting initiative, Ohio Smart Schools, will release findings in December identifying achievable near- and long-term goals for modernization and efficiency