SAN ANTONIO – For school districts, higher fuel prices can mean a much bigger bill than what drivers see when they fill up their personal vehicles.
School buses travel thousands of miles every day, and transportation departments must budget for the fuel needed to get students to and from school, athletic events, field trips, and other activities.
According to AAA, diesel is selling for about $5.72 per gallon in Texas. That’s a big jump from last year’s $3.21 per gallon.
For North East Independent School District, Bill Harrison, the district’s Executive Director, said they are seeing the increase directly from diesel prices when reviewing their budget and expenses.
“We’re paying about $2.10 more a gallon than we were about a year ago,” said Harrison.
He told KSAT reporter Alexis Scott that NEISD buses travel about 16,500 to 17,000 miles each day. The district uses roughly 9,000 to 10,000 gallons of fuel each week, depending on field trips, football games and other activities. And yes, that fuel use is reflected in the district’s budget.
The district, Harrison said, budgeted $1.6 million for fuel this school year. He added the district had already spent about $1 million and they’re only three months into the school year.
If diesel prices remain at current levels, Harrison said the district could face difficult decisions about how to manage its transportation operations.
“There will be some serious discussions moving forward if the price maintains where it’s at and how do we handle that,” Harrison said.
NISD locks in its fuel price
Northside ISD is also seeing higher fuel costs, but the district uses a different approach to manage market fluctuations.
NISD participates in the Texas Association of School Boards Fuel Co-op, which allows participating school districts to lock in fuel rates for the year.
“You have districts from all over the state of Texas joining the Fuel Co-op. So, the more members that they have as a part of the cooperative, the lower the gas prices can be for all of the members,” said NISD Director of Transportation, Tesilia Soliz.
The locked-in rate gives the district more certainty about what it will pay throughout the year, but the rate is still significantly higher than last year. NISD paid about $3.31 per gallon for diesel last year. This year, its locked-in rate is $4.46 per gallon.
Soliz said the difference is expected to add nearly $1 million to the district’s fuel budget.
“We did a comparison of the two to come up with a differential of almost a million dollar difference in our budget that’s going to be required to cover the increasing costs of fuel prices,” Soliz said.
NISD expects to use about 550,000 gallons of fuel next fiscal year, with projected fuel costs of about $2.4 million. That represents a 47% increase from last year. The district operates 967 buses, making it one of the largest school bus fleets in Texas.
Finding ways to save
Despite the higher costs, transportation officials said cutting bus service is not a simple option.
“We really haven’t been able to make any drastic changes into the operations itself,” Soliz added. “It’s a necessity. It has to happen.”
Both districts are also limiting how long buses idle while waiting on school campuses. NEISD has a three-minute idling policy, while NISD asks drivers to turn buses off if they expect to wait longer than 10 minutes, helping reduce unnecessary fuel use.
NEISD has also been examining its routes and looking for ways to reduce the number of miles buses travel without affecting the transportation students rely on. Harrison said students remain the district’s priority.
“We’ve got to make sure we get every kid to school. So we still need every bus,” Harrison said.
What happens at the pump doesn’t just affect the cost of filling a tank for you and your family. It can influence how school districts plan for the transportation needs of thousands of students next year and the year after that.
KSAT also reached out to San Antonio Independent School District to see how rising prices are affecting its budget.
The district said it operates under a fixed-rate contract, which NISD also does. SAISD added they may also see delays in diesel deliveries.
Our news team requested an interview with SAISD several times but has not received a response since the initial submission in September.
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