School transportation completely funded by state

WINSTON COUNTY - For the first time in possibly state history, the Alabama Legislature has fully funded school transportation for public schools across the state, meaning $745,235 in additional funds to cover any shortfalls for Winston County Schools.
This means that financial shortfalls school systems across the state have been facing with buses and other transportation needs have been remedied, at least for this year, as millions of dollars have been secured from the state legislature, according to a press release issue by State Senate Pro-Tem Garlan Gudger.
The Winston County School system has 71 buses in its fleet, running 56 routes, with 16 of those buses transporting students for Haleyville City Schools, noted Winston County Schools Superintendent Jeff Scott.
“This is a major win for rural Alabama,” Gudger pointed out when announcing the funding this past week.
“For years, school systems have been forced to use money intended for the classroom to cover the cost of getting students safely to and from school,” Gudger added. “With this year’s investment, our rural school buses can operate without taking dollars away from teachers, students and classrooms.
“For the school systems in our Senate district alone, full transportation funding means freeing up more than $3 million in funding that can remain focused on educating our students,” Gudger continued.
Scott explained that schools each year receive monies in the budget from the state for transportation, but the state has only funded around 82 percent of the system’s total transportation needs, leaving local schools to use their own resources to cover the remaining 18 percent.
“This year will be the first year since I have been in education 34 years that it has been fully funded,” Scott emphasized. 
“In the past, I think the highest it has ever been  is somewhere between 82 and 87 percent funded by the state,” Scott noted. “Whatever was left was to be made up by the local board of education.”
Last year, making up the 18 percent shortfall in what the state did not fund for transportation, cost Winston County Schools $438,000 from local funds, Scott stated.  The school system also has to figure in the costs of fuel, bus drivers and maintenance on the buses.
“There are a lot of costs when it comes to running 56 bus routes a day,” he said.
“We have 15 spare (buses). We try to keep at least two on each campus and four for extracurricular (activities.) You are going to have buses break down, so you have to have spares.”