Fort Wayne schools will cut bus service to 4,000 to 6,000 students to save $2.5 million

The plan begins next fall for the 2015-16 school year.

To get a truer picture of district ridership, the district is also asking parents of every student to fill out an assignment application, formerly known as an intradistrict transfer, to indicate where they want their children to attend school, even if the student attends his or her geographically assigned district. 

“People who are staying where they are, normally we wouldn’t check back with them until the end of summer,” Superintendent Wendy Robinson said.

The district was forced to consider alternatives after state property tax caps passed six years ago reduced the amount of money school districts could raise for various school budgets. In the case of the transportation budget, the amount that would have been collected had the tax caps not taken place is about $9 million.

Reducing the number of students who are transported, changing school feeder patterns and going to a three-tiered start and end of the school day have resulted in reductions that nearly reach the $2.5 million mark needed to balance the budget, school officials said.