Student transportation is inching its way back into Lehighton Area School District’s plans for the 2020-21 school year just a few months after being defunded during the budget process.

The board passed a motion Monday night allowing for up to $800,000 to be spent on student busing with George’s Transportation Company, though not all district students will have that option.

The transportation plan does not call for busing students who live in Lehighton Borough. Superintendent Jonathan Cleaver said those students are within the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s approved walking boundaries.

“With the majority of the buses being limited to a 48 student capacity, the borough buses will need to be reassigned to the other rural areas,” he said.

Cleaver said the district has been working diligently with George’s Transportation on developing the most cost effective plan for the district, while still following the safety guidelines of only allowing two students per seat.

“We are contacting individual parents and guardians on a daily basis in an effort to get as accurate as possible number of students who would request district transportation if made available to them,” he said.

“The current plan has approximately 15-16 bus runs for students in grades K-8 and 8-9 bus runs at the high school level.”

One board member who voted against the plan, Joy Beers, said the district “could do better” and that money is there to support transporting the Lehighton Borough students to and from school.

In June, the majority of Lehighton’s board voted to, at least temporarily, cut all nonmandated student transportation to and from school each day, leading to a $992,810 savings from the 2020-21 budget.

“We have worked with the administration to try and to solve this problem as best we can,” board President Larry Stern said. “This does leave out the local area, but compared to where we were at the beginning of the process, I think providing transportation to our outlying townships is a great step. If something can be done in the next couple weeks to do more, I’m sure we will do that. This is the best alternative we could come up with in this unfortunate situation we are in.”

Director David Bradley put a motion on the floor to fund transportation “from the reduction of corruption and waste, which permeates the agency.”

“Said saving is to occur from the proper governance and the proper allocation of funds,” Bradley said in an email describing his motion. “Included in the funding will be the funds which were reimbursed from the state specifically for transportation.”

Under Bradley’s plan, students from each school would be transported separately and ride times would not exceed 35 minutes for elementary center students, and 50 minutes for middle school and high school students.

Bradley’s motion failed 5-4, though he said he remains concerned about transporting elementary students on the same buses as middle school students.

Cleaver said the transportation plan approved Monday will create a budget deficit, unless other budgeted costs can be eliminated and/or decreased. The district could, he added, cut the budget by $322,540 through attritional savings related to recent professional staff resignations.

“Another area helping cash flow could be the collection of payment from local school districts for tuition due to Lehighton from prior years,” Cleaver said.

During public comment Monday, parents questioned the district’s priorities of funding sports, while still cutting some students out of transportation.

“I’m not picking sports over transportation,” Director Rita Spinelli said.

“If it were my decision, we would not be having fall sports, but we are part of a league and we will wait and see what happens.

“The money put toward the sports program won’t cover the difference in busing. This is the best we can offer right now.”