Adding an additional afternoon bus route to take students to ConVal High School for vocational classes has driven up the expected cost of busing for the Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative School District.
During its meeting Monday, the Jaffrey-Rindge School Board made two budget transfers to cover overages in the budget. The first was for about $30,000 to cover a shortfall in the vocational transportation budget. The funds were taken from other areas of the transportation budget.
The difference between last year’s budget and this year’s is an extra bus for vocational classes, the district’s Communications Coordinator Nicholas Handy said Tuesday. More students who are unable to transport themselves are attending afternoon classes.
“Last year, there was only one student in the afternoon who was going to ConVal for a vocational class, but she transported herself,” Handy wrote in an email to the Ledger-Transcript Tuesday. “This year, we have four students who are taking a vocational class at ConVal in the afternoon but the are not driving themselves. Because of this, we have had to add a route in the afternoon so that those students can get to ConVal and back.”
There is also a morning bus route for vocational students taking classes at Mascenic Regional High School or ConVal.
During Monday’s meeting, the board also allocated $4,875 of the building maintenance budget to pay for the purchase and installation of dispensers for the girls’ bathroom to provide free tampons and pads to comply with the recently passed “Period of Poverty” law.
Gov. Chris Sununu signed SB 142 into law in July, requiring school districts to provide feminine hygiene products in public restrooms at no charge. There were no state funds attached to the bill to pay for the dispensers or products.
Both expenses were covered by funds from other areas of the budget.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.