Columbia County's school system could be missing out on thousands of dollars in state funding for its school buses.
The problem, state officials say, is the county's nine-year lapse in conducting a survey to determine the number of bus routes the state will subsidize.
Columbia County gets $651.08 a month per driver for 107 of its bus routes. But that is based on a 1996 survey when the county had a total of 123 bus routes.
State and local officials admit it is difficult to determine exactly how much money the system has already lost.
"(The survey) still needs to be done, and will be, but it's not a matter that we lost hundreds of thousands of dollars," said Shirley Doolittle, the county school system's interim transportation director.
Completing a transportation survey requires mapping the home of every pupil enrolled in a county school and the school the pupil attends. Pupils who live within 1 miles of their school are considered walkers, and thus not eligible for funding of a bus route, according to state officials.
Ms. Doolittle said that for safety reasons, the county still provides bus service to several students whom the state considers walkers.
But because the county hasn't submitted a new survey in nine years, it gets funding for only 107 bus routes, even though this year it has 157.
"There is not a mandated time frame on when school systems have to turn in surveys, but it's usually around every five years," state Department of Education spokesman Kirk Englehardt said.
Richmond County school officials turned in a survey in January 1998, and state officials allotted them 165 routes. The system currently runs 201 buses, school spokeswoman Mechelle Jordan said.
"We're due another survey, and that can happen at any time," she said.
In 2001, when Columbia County last considered conducting the complicated survey, state funding was at a minimum and the likelihood of collecting more funding was slim, Ms. Doolittle said.
Mr. Englehardt said there's no way to know whether the county would have gained more allotments.
"If the survey had been conducted by the local system and submitted to the state early 2001, there is a possibility that some funding could have been granted in 2002," he said. "However, it's a guess whether the survey would have indicated additional buses."
With state funds now more readily available, Ms. Doolittle said Columbia County will conduct a new survey by February 2006 to better represent about 2,500 pupils added to the system's enrollment in the past decade. She said a new survey likely will yield an additional 10 to 20 bus allotments.
If the state granted 20 more allotments, that would mean an increase of $156,259 each year in funding. Ms. Doolittle said that's not a large increase considering the system's $5 million transportation budget.
"If you were talking about a grant for millions of dollars, we'd drop what we were doing and get right on it," she said.
Reach Donnie Fetter at 868-1222, ext. 113, or donnie.fetter@augustachronicle.com.
System enrollment
1996: about 17,500
2005: about 20,000
Number of bus riders
1996: 9,625
2005: about 11,000
Number of bus routes
1996: 123
200: 157
Number of state allotments
1996: 107
2005: 107
Source: Columbia County Board of Education Transportation Department
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