Exterior Ad Program Expected to
Bring in $400,000 Annually

By Ryan Gray | Senior Editor

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Parents want them and now the school buses that ferry their children back and forth to school have them.

The Scottsdale Unified School District has external advertisements on roughly half its fleet of 150 buses - at press time 75 - in a revenue program urged by local parents to offset budget constraints that could generate enough funding for 10 new teaching positions. Arizona 's school finance woes rank amongst the very worst in the nation.

"We rank 50 th ahead of only Utah in funding per student," said district spokesman Tom Herrmann. "What we need to do to provide the funding for the programs (that) parents tell us that they want is to be creative."

Scottsdale transports about 8,000 regular education and special needs students each day, nearly 31 percent of the total student body, over about 115 square miles. The district serves 20 elementary schools, seven middle schools and five high schools using a three-tiered system that runs "very tightly," said Transportation Director Dan Shearer.

The idea was introduced about three years ago, as the district contemplated cutting educational programs to balance its annual overall budget of about $126 million, 4.75 percent of which goes to transportation. Scottsdale Unified projected that the ad campaign will generate about $400,000 additional dollars a year, none of which goes to the school buses themselves.

"Now with the increased demand, we can only be optimistic that we might receive more than that," Hermann said.

Two sponsors, Scottsdale PMT Ambulance and automobile dealership Martin Buick, Pontiac and GMC, have signed on since the school board approved the plan on Dec. 1.

A school board statute marks a portion of the revenues to retrofit non-school bus diesel engines, such as utility trucks. The balance is kept in a "to be determined" account to be used at the school board's discretion for whatever non-transportation programs need it. For example, Hermann said the annual revenue would be enough to fund 10 additional full-time teaching positions.

The ads, currently earmarked for full-size buses only, are contingent upon the message and are prohibited from pushing cigarettes or sugary food and drink. Hermann said the school board retains ultimate approval on the types of ads to be run and wants to have advertising outside the bus only "to keep from exposing children any more than necessary." "These things must be appropriate for young children," said Herrmann. "The clear majority on school buses are kids of elementary age."

A growing number of school districts nationwide are embracing exterior advertising campaigns, despite recommendations from NASDPTS and the National Conference on School Transportation that ads may distract other motorists from exhibiting caution around the yellow school bus. Scottsdale Unified recognizes that some are opposed to the program. But Hermann said that, with most drivers approaching the bus from behind, the ads shouldn't affect their visibility or attention.

"Placement below rub line is something that won't detract motorists from being able to see a large yellow school bus going down street," he said of the ads, which measure 16 inches high by 72 inches long. "They are very small in comparison to the size of the school bus. We're not wrapping the bus with decorative artists."

So far, safety, or lack thereof, has not been an issue for the school district.

"We haven't seen anything impacting safety at all, and we're not anticipating anything," Shearer said. He added that the district's 160 school bus drivers are engaged in friendly competition over whose bus will be the next to be adorned with the banners.