News Release
For Immediate Release January 17, 2010

Board of Education and Department of Education Consider Plan to Eliminate School Bus Service for Students Students First...Save Our School Buses Coalition Urge Parents to Act

Honolulu, Hawaii --The State of Hawaii Board of Education (BOE) will hold a special committee meeting to discuss the elimination of the Hawaii School Bus Transportation system on Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 3:00 pm at the Queen Liliuokalani Building, 1390 Miller Street, Room 404, Board Room.

"We urge parents, students, community leaders, legislators and interested parties who want to keep the school transportation system running to attend, said Shawn Ching, spokesperson for the Students First...Save Our School Buses Coalition. "In fact, this may be the one and only time you will have an opportunity to provide input to the proposal," continued Ching.

A letter written by Kathryn S. Matayoshi, Department of Education (DOE) Interim Superintendent, outlines the DOE’s recommendations to the Board of Education Reduce bus service in the current school year by eliminating the routes already being eliminated, and eliminate more routes on Oahu next school year:
*Aggressively consolidate routes effective February 1. 2010, once the ridership
has stabilized after the second week of the second semester;
*Increase the bus fare again, effective July 1, to match the already approved increase the City youth fare and
*Increase the walk distance (where school bus service is not allowed) to:
2.5 miles for high school students
2.0 miles for students in grades 6-8
1.5 miles for students in grades 3-5

"The recommendation effectively paves the way to eliminate the school bus transportation system except for the Special Need students, curb-to-curb services, which is about 9 percent of the bus service provided. If these proposals are accepted, the majority of the 37,000 regular education student bus riders will have to find some other way to get to and from school every day when school is in session. Most of those students reside on the neighbor islands, where public bus transportation is extremely limited. "On Oahu, most public bus routes cannot handle the additional students. We want everyone to remember that the purpose of school is for students. If they can"t get to school, they won’t be able to learn. Even more unsettling is a DOE proposal under consideration that would eliminate all regular education bus transportation services once funding runs out this year," he continued.

In a December 14, 2009 letter to Randolph Moore of the DOE, City Director of Transportation Services Wayne Yoshioka stated that the Honolulu City bus service is not able to accommodate any influx of students and urged the DOE to fulfill its responsibilities to its student riders.

"First, this decision is not just one about education, but one about our children"s safety," said Ms. Lee Gomes, President of the Hawaii School Bus Association (HSBA). "School buses are the safest way for kids to get to school. Second, having no school bus system will just add to our already congested traffic problem. Third, neighbor island students and rural families on all islands will be even more unfairly hit the hardest by this decision," continued Gomes.

"Each day an additional 40,000 students will have to find some other way to school and home again. This translates to 80,000 trips a day," said Roy Pfund, Vice President of HSBA.

The DOE is recommending amendments to Chapter 27, Hawaii Administrative Rules (Transportation for Students) that:
* Eliminates the fare cap (now 50 percent of cost)
* Deletes the "walk distance" (so the Department could determine it, with Board approval)
* Adds a "reduced fare" concept, so there could be a reduced fare for those students eligible for reduced meal prices.
* Allow the Department, with Board approval, to determine which categories of students are eligible for free bus service and which are eligible for reduced fares.
* Allow the Department to discontinue school bus service where, with Department’s determination, there is adequate public transportation.

DOE Website link: Committee Meeting Information

Last month, the Students First...Save Our School Buses Coalition was formed to inform parents of the pending changes. Visit HawaiiStudentsFirst.org. Within that short time period, the association has received more than 20,000 petitions from parents throughout the state.

"Students First…Save Our School Buses" is a grass roots effort to save/preserve the Hawaii school bus system. Many students living in the islands depend on this bus service for school transportation for a variety of reasons. "Students First...Save Our School Buses" is an effort to keep our children in school, transport them safely, minimize traffic congestion and not to unfairly single out families who have no other form of transportation to get their children to school.

Don’t Hawaii’s children deserve to be concentrating on their education, rather than worrying about finding ways to get to and from school each day? The HSBA believes they do. For more information, go to HawaiiStudentsFirst.org. E-mail – hawaiischoolbus@gmail.com