Barrington schools shifting gears on bus monitors

Budget reflects that district is using more bus company monitors

Posted 4/2/20

The Barrington School Department is getting out of the bus monitor business.

For years, the school department hired and managed its own school bus monitors. But recently officials have relied …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Register to post events


If you'd like to post an event to our calendar, you can create a free account by clicking here.

Note that free accounts do not have access to our subscriber-only content.

Day pass subscribers

Are you a day pass subscriber who needs to log in? Click here to continue.


Barrington schools shifting gears on bus monitors

Budget reflects that district is using more bus company monitors

Posted

The Barrington School Department is getting out of the bus monitor business.

For years, the school department hired and managed its own school bus monitors. But recently officials have relied more heavily on transportation companies and contracted bus monitors.

Barrington Schools Director of Finance Doug Fiore said the shift has had very little impact on the school budget.

"As we have lost our monitor employees through attrition over the past few years we have been replacing them with contracted monitors," Mr. Fiore said. "This process is close to cost neutral and as the line item for contracted 'Bus Monitors' shows an increase there is also a corresponding decrease in the salary line for the former employee monitors that were paid from that line."

In 2019, the school department spent $82,000 on bus monitors.

In the 2020 school budget, the district is spending $80,080 on bus monitors.

According to the budget summary provided by school officials on Feb. 20, Barrington schools are expecting to spend $141,588 for bus monitors next year.

"…as we continue to transition to contracted monitors we should continue to see a migration of related expenses move from the salary line to the contracted 'Bus Monitors' line," Mr. Fiore said.

The district's finance director said there have been two recent occasions where the school department increased spending on transportation without balancing it with a corresponding budget cut. In FY19, the district brought on another special education bus to reduce run times and also contracted for a mini-bus to serve stops along the Wampanoag Trail because of safety concerns.

Despite the additional spending in those situations, Barrington has been a leader on economic efficiencies in school transportation, said Mr. Fiore.

"Per the latest UCOA (Uniform Chart of Accounts) data (FY18) Barrington’s per pupil cost for transportation is $273," said Mr. Fiore. "$273 is the lowest in the state in our peer group (Suburban) and represents 37 percent of the Suburban sub-group average of $735 per student. State-wide our per pupil transportation cost is 41 percent of the average cost of $658."

2024 by East Bay Media Group

Barrington · Bristol · East Providence · Little Compton · Portsmouth · Tiverton · Warren · Westport
Meet our staff
MIKE REGO

Mike Rego has worked at East Bay Newspapers since 2001, helping the company launch The Westport Shorelines. He soon after became a Sports Editor, spending the next 10-plus years in that role before taking over as editor of The East Providence Post in February of 2012. To contact Mike about The Post or to submit information, suggest story ideas or photo opportunities, etc. in East Providence, email mrego@eastbaymediagroup.com.