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Fee Proposed To Bus Some Kids In Hillsborough

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By MARILYN BROWN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 10, 2008

TAMPA - Hillsborough County School Board member Susan Valdes asked fellow board members Tuesday at a workshop to consider what Brevard County is doing: Charge parents who live closer than two miles to their school a fee to transport their children.

"We'll definitely look at it," schools Superintendent MaryEllen Elia said, if the district can figure out how to do it with its shortage of bus drivers.

Brevard County has no driver shortage, said Mike Connors, that district's transportation director. Brevard, on Florida's east coast, transports 29,000 of its 74,000 students a day, he said.

"We've done some innovative things," Connors said, to get and keep drivers: a guaranteed seven hours of pay a day, a $250 bonus for each driver recruited, a $125 bonus for each 45 days of perfect attendance and a starting salary of $11.64 an hour. Hillsborough's starting pay is $10.56 an hour.

Connors said Brevard has offered transportation for a fee to elementary school students for years, if there is room on a scheduled bus and existing stops are used. The fee, collected upfront, increased from $1 to $2 a day this year.

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