Traverse City Area Public Schools is northern Michigan's largest school district and it's facing a multi million dollar budget shortfall.

A new transportation plan is designed to save the district big bucks, but will also mean big changes for parents, students and staff.

The details are tonight's Fact Finder Report.

The Traverse City Area Public School district has more than ten thousand students spread out over 300 square miles.

TCAPS Chief Financial Officer Paul Soma says, "We're the only district that can say we're large geographically and large student population wise. There's really not even a close second."

That's the main reason the district spends more than the state average on transportation: 7.5% of its budget or $6.5 million.

But that will soon change.

TCAPS leaders have spent the last 3 months developing a new policy to make bussing more efficient and save money.

Soma says, "This is a major, major change for the school system."

In the past TCAPS assumed more than 9 thousands students would ride the bus, but Soma says in reality only about half that do. So now TCAPS is requiring parents to sign up their students for busing.

That may lead to eliminating some bus routes and bus stops.

Soma says, "We're asking for people's help implementing this policy. The school district is in a time of major cut backs and we're having to establish fewer bus stops around the community."

Planners are also changing the zone near schools where buses won't pick up students. It will now be on a school by school basis depending on the neighborhood and traffic. That means some students will have to walk farther.

Another big difference is that there will no longer always having separate buses for elementary, middle and high school students. Now some routes will be K-12. That means some routes will have kindergarteners and high school seniors on the same bus.

Soma says, "That will save the district literally hundreds of thousands of dollars."

In all Soma says the policy changes could save the district $500,000 or more

Soma says, "obviously less busses on the road means less maintenance on those buses, less miles driven and also less salaries and benefits for the staff to provide transportation. It's similar to a downsizing of a transportation fleet."

How many jobs? Soma says it's still too early to tell and will depend on how many routes get eliminated.

The TCAPS Board of Education will review this new policy tonight. That meeting just got started at 6pm. They'll be taking feedback on the plan for the next month and the board will adopt the new policy at its June 14th meeting.

There's a lot to this new policy.  Are these changes good for students? Is this the right way for the district to try and save money? If you'd like to read it for yourself, click here.