Mayor suggests cutting middle school lottery to allay for school bussing costs

Advocate Staff Report

The School Committee continued to struggle with next year’s budget at their meeting this week.

Transportation seems to be the biggest challenge although the committee is working to chip away at a multi-million-dollar shortfall.

School transportation, an expense that is covered by the city, is now estimated to cost $11.6 million thanks to reimbursements from the state. However, the city can only afford $9.7 million, a $500,000 increase over last year.

Mayor Patrick Keefe, who serves as chairman of the school committee, proposed eliminating the middle school lottery which would have students attend neighborhood schools and save between $90,000 and $150,000 a year in bussing costs.

But committee members felt changing a long-standing policy without community meetings and parental input and ending middle school busing without offering families some alternative was not a good policy. Revere Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Dianne Kelly called it “reckless.”

Keefe then spent time explaining to the committee that the cost of student transportation exceeded the total amount of financial growth, $7 million, that the city saw last year. Also, $11.6 million is more than the annual budgets for the city’s police and fire departments.

But for school committee members, student safety and needs are the priority.

If the school district cuts busing and only provides transportation for students two or more miles from school, they fear small children will be forced to walk to school in all kinds of weather.

But it’s not just walking in the rain that worries committee members. Unlike other communities that have cut student transportation because of the spiraling costs, Revere is crisscrossed by four highways and busy roads with aggressive Boston-bound commuter traffic.

Still, Keefe pushed to end the lottery which he said has been a burden on families and taxpayers who are picking up the bill to transport students across the city. Committee Vice Chairwoman Jacqueline Monterroso suggested that a debate on eliminating the middle school lottery would be something the committee should put on the agenda for 2027.

The committee is looking to close the transportation budget gap dollar by dollar.

The next step is to look at the money saved by specific cuts and measures to see if they can make the numbers work.