Saratoga School District Transportation Workers Question Proposed Budget Cuts

SARATOGA SPRINGS — At an April 18 Board of Education meeting, two Saratoga Springs City School District transportation department employees questioned proposed budget cuts that could eliminate two full-time positions in their department.

Dean Musgrove, a dispatcher, expressed his concerns during a public comment period, saying that he spoke on behalf of other transportation workers. “We’re very concerned about the situation that we’re in right now,” he said. “The cuts proposed are going to make things significantly worse.”

In a prior education board meeting on March 28, a budget presentation suggested that two full-time department positions could be eliminated: a bus mechanic and a bus dispatcher. 

Musgrove said his department was “at the end of our proverbial rope” and said fellow transportation workers in the audience were there to ask for the board’s help. 

David Gonzalez, a first-shift dispatcher who works with Musgrove, said he understood that “cuts have to happen, but we are putting safety at risk with cutting a mechanic, cutting a backup dispatcher.”

“I think these decisions need to be reconsidered,” Gonzalez said. “There are other options.”

Saratoga Springs, along with many other school districts nationwide, has struggled in recent years to hire bus drivers and maintain all of its bus routes.