Currently, the Gilroy Unified School District provides free transportation for students who live more than one mile from their elementary school and more than two miles away from their middle or high school - a generous package when compared to other local school districts' offerings, Director of Transportation Darren Salo pointed out.

More than 250 students will need to find their own way to school next year and another 200 will catch the big yellow bus at a new stop. By making these adjustments to the complicated web of bus routes, the district managed to save an extra $50,000 over the initial projection of $350,000 and reinstitute the early Wednesday dismissal to the elementary and middle school day.

Gilroy is the only school district in the county that provides transportation free of charge. Morgan Hill buses students who live more than 1.5 miles away from their school at a fee of $0.84 per trip.

Other districts either charge for busing or don't offer transportation at all, Salo said.

"I feel that reducing those services to these five sites is not out of line with the rest of what's happening in Santa Clara County," he said. The five sites affected are the high school, South Valley Middle, Ascencion Solorsano Middle, Rucker Elementary and Las Animas Elementary schools.

High schoolers will bear the brunt of the cuts. In-town bus stops near South Valley Middle, Antonio Del Buono, Rod Kelley and Luigi Aprea schools to GHS will be eliminated calling for some students to find their own way to school from nearly four miles away.

Rucker and Las Animas students living in rural Gilroy will now ride with their middle and high school counterparts, tacking up to 30 extra minutes onto their commute.

The other six elementary schools will not be affected - four of them are already walking schools that don't receive busing.

Solorsano's 10 Eagle Ridge riders will no longer receive service - they are within the two mile walking distance.

South Valley riders who catch the bus near Antonio Del Buono and Rod Kelley will now hop on at Los Arroyos Park.

When Trustee Tom Bundros asked why the district didn't just charge for busing like many other districts, Salo explained that Gilroy doesn't have the ridership that would lend itself to that scenario. The law requires that students receiving free and reduced lunch receive free and reduced rides, Salo said. With 75 percent of Gilroy's students on the free and reduced lunch program, only 25 percent of the riders would carry the cost.

He estimated that, because of the fees, 10 percent would opt out of bus service, leaving a measly 15 percent that would pay.

With only 1,300 students riding the bus, less than 200 students would pay if the district started charging.

With such small numbers, he said it wasn't worth it.

When Board President Rhoda Bress expressed her concern that reduced busing would affect attendance rates, Superintendent Deborah Flores assured her that she saw no change in attendance rates at other districts.

"That's our bread and butter," Bress said of the district's average daily attendance.

A parent in the audience at the board meeting echoed the misgivings board members have voiced about making it difficult for families to get their children to school: "I worry that if we don't make it as easy as possible for people to get their kids to school, they won't go," Melonie Gonzalez said.