BUSD approves short-term pact for bus transportation to Rancho Viejo

The Bonsall Unified School District (BUSD) has approved an agreement with First Student to provide short-term bus transportation for students living in the Rancho Viejo community.

A 5-0 BUSD board vote Aug. 11 approved the agreement in which the school district will pay First Student $338.26 per day for an estimated 39 school days. The daily rate covers two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon, and the school district will pay First Student $29.21 per hour for any services in excess of the daily round trips.

"Its approval was needed to be able to have a service for a bus driver," said BUSD superintendent Justin Cunningham.

For most of the school year the bus service will be provided by BUSD employees, but two future bus drivers are in the process of completing their behind-the-wheel training and their Department of Motor Vehicles and California Highway Patrol testing.

"We have the bus, but we don't have drivers trained," Cunningham said. "It's hard to find bus drivers."

The agreement covers the period from Aug. 15 through Oct. 10. First Student will provide a school bus and a driver to serve Rancho Viejo, Bonsall Elementary School, and the campus where both Sullivan Middle School and Bonsall High School are located.

"We need to fill in that gap and we promised the folks in the community that we would be getting a bus out there," Cunningham said. "We definitely wanted to follow through with that."