CERRO GORDO - When gas prices started creeping toward $4 a gallon in the spring, Cerro Gordo's school board started thinking about what to do to keep transportation costs down.

Their solution was to reduce the number of school bus routes from nine to seven.

"Since we're not sending two buses out, there's fewer miles being driven and therefore less fuel (being used)," said Superintendent Brett Robinson.

State law requires that students ride buses no longer than an hour, Robinson said, and even since the change, Cerro Gordo students aren't on buses too long. The longest ride is about 50 minutes.

Similar scenarios are playing out nationwide. According to the National School Board Association, districts everywhere are considering four-day school weeks, cutting bus routes and reducing or eliminating activity buses and field trips.

Rolofson Bus Service, which serves Argenta-Oreana schools, hasn't cut back on routes but is conserving fuel in other ways, owner Karen Rolofson said.

"We are not cutting back on routes. You still have to go those places, anyway," Rolofson said. "One thing we do, if we go to (the Decatur Area Technical Academy), for instance, our bus stays there and does not come back out, does not go for breakfast; they stay at vocational."

On extracurricular trips, such as sporting events and music performances, the driver waits for the students at that location. If it's a daylong activity, Rolofson said, the driver is allowed to take meal breaks.

Drivers who live closer to Decatur than Argenta and drive routes in Decatur and its outskirts take their buses home with them, she said.

Decatur transportation director Randy Dotson told the school board July 22 that he would have to add routes next year, when the district implements a pod concept for elementary schools.

Buildings that are close to each other will be grouped into pods, allowing the district to redistribute students in the elementary grades and keep student-teacher ratios small while still keeping students close to home. He said he didn't expect the additional buses to raise transportation costs significantly, because only about 100 students will be affected.

"We're going to stay the course," he said. "But eventually we could be in trouble. It's starting to affect everything out there. I think people are going to feel it in more than just the fuel (prices) if it stays up there."

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