The Haines school  district will host an in-person meeting at 6 p.m. tonight at the Mosquito Lake school to discuss ongoing student transportation concerns. 

On Friday, borough school staff and board president answered questions from parents during a Zoom meeting convened after the district announced it would not bus students during the upcoming school year. 

Superintendent Lilly Boron estimates nearly 30 students bus to school from in-town or out the highway. 

Boron told parents that the school board spent months in a  back-and-forth with the only company that bid on a busing contract. Ultimately, the school board voted against accepting a bid that came in 86 percent higher than the previous contract. 

Last year, the school district paid $139,249 to Haines Development Inc. for bus service, according to figures Boron presented during the meeting. 

“We budgeted for an increase of 25% in the cost of the bus contract,” she said. “The bottom line here is the bid we received after negotiating, if you look at that — $259,000 for one year.” 

Haines Development Inc. held the transportation contract for the previous five years. 

Owner Roger Schnabel said the company was “treading water” during the last two years of its contract, because of increased costs with insuring the buses and certifying drivers.

Schnabel and Boron said they discussed what could bring the costs down, including things like extending the length of the contract or using older buses.

 But, nothing significantly reduced the costs.  

“It’s a tough contract. It’s a really hard contract to bid,” Schnabel said. “I’ve had it for five years, but I can’t say driving children up the road … is easy. It’s just so high risk.” 

Christopher Nick Marquardt pointed out that the loss of busing service will also reduce the productivity of everyone involved in transporting students to and from school.

“For me, it would be up to four hours a day, depending on the weather,” he said. “We are looking at effectively decrementing the entire parental population of  Haines to whatever the transportation timeline is. To me, that’s kind of an insane thing.”

When you extrapolate that loss of productivity, Marquardt said asking parents to drive their children to and from school has a huge impact. 

“That’s kind of a treacherous direction to head in if we’re looking to try to fix a problem, because then we’re looking at a potentially multi-million dollar deficit in productivity to bridge a $100,000 gap … for transportation.” 

Boron told parents the district gets transportation funding from the state, but uses it for all forms of pupil transportation — including field trips, renting buses, shuttle service for activities and ferry travel. 

Accepting a student busing contract that absorbed all of the state funding for pupil transportation would have an impact in several other areas. 

The district currently reimburses people who drive their kids in some parts of the district to school. 

“Some people may not know this, but there’s a route that we have discontinued due to cost and so we actually pay some families along the Lutak Road,” Boron said. 

People asked for specifics on how they’d be reimbursed for mileage, an offer known as “payment-in-lieu-of.” The reimbursement rate is calculated based on attendance. 

Currently, the reimbursement rate is 40 cents a mile, which would cost the district about $84,700 a year, according to figures Boron presented. 

Bumping that rate up to 70 cents a mile would cost $148,200. 

“Currently, we do it quarterly. We could probably change it. It’s based on attendance and the determined rate for each family,” said Judy Erekson, school district business manager.“Then I just do the math and write a check.” 

Boron and Erekson said the state provides that figure based on the distance between their home and the school. It’s not clear whether the reimbursement covers one round trip a day or two.

One parent, Erika Merklin, asked about opportunities for the borough to take on transportation. 

Boron said school district representatives have met with the borough to discuss the problem. 

They discussed, among other things,  the potential for a shuttle service. 

“I think that’s a short-term solution. I’ve communicated with the lawyer to say ‘what are some interim options that are legal,’” Boron said. “We want to be safe and we want to be prudent. I think what you need to hear from me is that we are continually talking with the borough.” 

Boron said she also planned to reach out to the Chilkoot Indian Association, which may also have some transportation funds. 

“Ultimately, this is a school issue and we’re not going to try to pass off to anybody,” she said. 

Another person in the meeting asked about the recent release of $5.5 billion in federal education funding that the Trump administration froze unexpectedly. 

Boron said the district will receive some funds, but it is earmarked for things like professional development and migrant education funding. 

“It’s very, very explicit about what that can be used for,” she said.

Still, she said, every little bit matters.

“We’re really in a funding crisis. Other districts have really suffered,” she said. “I think we’re three years behind some other districts and people have closed schools and closed food programs. I think we’ve been fortunate and we’ve had a bit of leeway. We asked for the [maximum contribution amount] from the borough this year and they gave it to us. So, we’re honestly better off.” 

Boron encouraged parents to call or email her with questions and ideas. 

The 45-minute meeting was hacked and the conversation was peppered with intermittent screaming, cursing, explicit and racist language. But, Boron and others powered through and largely ignored the outbursts.