Transportation In FY27, Newton will transport students via 34 yellow buses within the district, and 8 yellow buses for Boston METCO students, as well as special education transportation. Six of the 42 total buses are shared with the METCO program and partially funded by the grant, and one of these buses provides transportation to private schools. To date, NPS has issued approximately 4,000 bus passes and is transporting approximately 450 students in special education vans, for a total of 4,450 students, or 39% of NPS students. The district is entering into the fifth year of a five-year yellow bus contract with Eastern Bus Company. The annual budgeted increased cost for yellow bus transportation is increasing by 4.0%. In FY27, NPS is expected to collect $1,055,000 in bus fees, which is about $40,000 more than our FY26 projected fee collection amount. This increase in bus fee revenue is due to fee increases that the School Committee approved for FY27, which are listed in the table below. The total cost of yellow bus transportation is calculated by multiplying the daily rate by the number of buses by the number of school days (180). Yellow bus and special education transportation expenditures are projected to make up approximately 3.5% of the total FY27 budget. It should be noted all busing costs for our Boston students participating through the METCO program are paid by the METCO grant. Beginning in FY26, the School Committee voted to change the transportation policies for Newton students attending private schools within Newton. The law requires communities to transport students the same distance or less to an approved private school as the public school they would be assigned to attend. Previously, we provided transportation services beyond this requirement. By making this change, we have been able to better utilize our existing bus fleet to reduce overcrowding and timeliness issues that we continue to experience for our public-school riders. This has resulted in not needing to add two buses to our fleet and saving approximately $250,000. Total yellow bus transportation to private schools within Newton is 3 to 5 riders daily. For special education transportation services, the FY27 budget includes an increase of approximately $150,00 or roughly 2.1%. This increase is mostly due to the rate increase and lower than the FY26 increase due to not needing to add vans to the fleet In FY27, NPS will enter its fourth year of several five-year contracts with its special education transportation vendors. FY27 is the thirteenth consecutive year for which Newton and other Massachusetts school districts have received reimbursement from the state under the McKinney-Vento legislation for transportation of homeless students. In FY26, these funds are used to partially offset transportation costs. McKinney-Vento is budgeted at $420,000 before the anticipated reimbursement of $220,000. Additionally, Newton receives partial reimbursement from the state of Massachusetts for the transporting of foster care students. Newton is expected to receive $20,000 in additional funding for these expenses. Other Transportation Ideas We have previously discussed other cost savings options for consideration which include: ● Allowing school buses to park on School/City property. With this option, our vendor, rather than paying rent, would reduce our daily rate, thus helping to control costs and potentially attract other bidders interested in Newton. To date, we have been unable to find a suitable location to park buses on School/City land, but it is something we
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