Please provide quantified operational, transportation and other costs for eitherAt first glance it appeared that the grade-level plan would be more financially beneficial because it contained five buildings as opposed to six. However, after thoroughly reviewing, the square footage is the same so there was little buildings savings there. It also first appeared that there would be a savings in personnel. However, when we estimated our transportation needs for the new plan, this personnel savings was almost completely negated.
plan or resulting advantage/disadvantage in either plan.
In addition to an increased annual cost in transportation personnel, there is a major upfront cost to add busses. Our Director of Transportation reviewed route scenarios and estimated nine new busses and drivers would be needed. The extra busses, routes and drivers for the grade-level configuration would conservatively result in an estimated $300,000 to $400,000 increase in transportation costs annually than the other plan. The increase considers nine additional drivers at an average of $30,000 (total for wages and benefits) and also considers training, fuel, maintenance of vehicles and an additional mechanic (about $51,000 for wages & benefits). There would also be an upfront cost of approximately $900,000. This comes from adding 9 additional busses at approximately $100,000 each.
Avon school district was contacted about their conversion to grade-level schools and verified they experienced a similar expense.