MENIFEE —— Escalating costs —— particularly for diesel gasoline —— has Menifee Union officials considering raising bus fees. The busing cost per pupil could go up within the next several months, district officials said. Officials have also floated the idea of raising lunch fees, but say it's unlikely that cost will increase anytime soon.

Parents whose children take the bus to school currently pay for annual bus passes —— $170 for their first child, and $85 for each additional child, said Dan Wood, Menifee Union's assistant superintendent for business. Families whose children don't take the bus regularly have the option of paying 70 cents for a one-way trip either to or from school.

Even though students must pay to ride the bus, the district comes nowhere near recouping its costs.

On average, it costs about $590 annually to bus a student to and from school, Wood said. For the Menifee district, those transportation costs end up amounting to $1.38 million, he added.

Of that total cost, Wood said the district anticipates collecting about $230,000 from parents and guardians for their children's 2005-06 school year busing costs. In addition, the district gets about $129,000 each year from the state, he said.

The district subsidizes the rest of the costs to the tune of about $950,000, he added.

School board Trustee Fred Twyman said he believes most parents would be surprised that their busing contribution is small.

"Parents think the money they pay covers the (transportation) cost, but it doesn't even cover one-fourth of it," Twyman said.

Although bus fees were increased 10-cents per ride and $10 per semester last year, Superintendent Gary Cringan said that rising diesel prices may force the district to do so again.

"We're in the red for transportation," he added. "The hit on the general fund is about $1 million."

As such, Twyman recently asked district officials to consider raising student bus fees.

"A lot of that (general fund) money that should go into instruction and supplies goes to offset the bus fees," Twyman said. "Transportation is probably the largest nonacademic expenditure that we have. I'd rather see the money go into the classroom than the gas tank."

But it's not a given that the board will bump up bus fees, Wood said. He noted that raising prices would likely prompt a drop-off in ridership, so it might not actually result in a net financial gain on the district's part.

Rising diesel costs are affecting the lunch program as well, said David Warren, the district's food services supervisor.

"The overall cost of running the department —— salaries and benefits —— are going up," Warren said. "And we were hit with surcharges for gas."

As well, some parents owe the district a $2,000 sum in unpaid lunch fees for their children, Twyman said. He added that, unlike bus fees, he is disinclined to support boosting school lunch fees —- unless the district isn't repaid soon.

The district, Twyman said, will launch an automated calling system to notify parents of unpaid lunch fees and student absences. If the calling system, which could be unveiled in January, doesn't diminish owed fees, he would then consider raising lunch costs.

It wouldn't be the first time that lunch fees were raised in recent years.

In January 2004, the district raised the cost per lunch by 25 cents —— from $1.25 to $1.50 for elementary school pupils and $1.50 to $1.75 for middle school students, Warren said.

Last school year —— the first time in Warren's three-year stint as food services supervisor —— the district did not lose money on its lunch program.

Contact staff writer Brian Eckhouse at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2626, or beckhouse@californian.com.