Committee presses district for detail after packet lists large homeless-student transportation sums

The Lowell School Committee questioned district staff about transportation line items for homeless students after the meeting packet included permission-to-enter requests for several contracts.

Committee member Mister Bahu asked whether the $250,000 (noted elsewhere in the record as $251,000) figure was for students attending Lowell schools or to transport Lowell students to other districts. He said $250,000 for 20 students would break down to about $12,500 per student and asked whether some of the cost might simply send students to other districts rather than bring them to Lowell.

Superintendent (Doctor Pinto in the record) and administrative staff explained that many entries are treated as cost-share arrangements under the McKinney-Vento law: the district of residence and the district of attendance allocate transportation responsibility depending on where a student is placed. Staff said the district establishes a paper trail and requests backup documentation for cost-share entries and offered to return to the committee with a fuller, non‑identifying report on which students are attending Lowell, which are being transported elsewhere, and the contract details and cost-share breakdowns.

The packet also included an item described by a committee member as approximately $1.6 million for 86 cost-share students; the committee expressed concern that the combined items could create significant year-end pressure on the transportation budget. Committee members and staff agreed to additional scrutiny and a follow-up report. The permission-to-enter motion for these transportation contracts passed on a roll call later in the meeting.