AC TRANSIT DISTRICT Board of Directors Executive Summary
GM Memo No. 02-029 Meeting Date: February 7, 2002
Committees: Executive Committee External Affairs Committee
[ ] [ ]
Board of Directors
[ ]
Operations Committee [ ] Planning Committee [X]
Subject: Youth/School Pass RECOMMENDED ACTION:
[ ] Information Only
[ X ] Recommended Motion
Authorize staff to develop a pilot program to provide middle and high school students in the AC Transit District with a free or reduced price pass and to: • work with local school administrators to develop a program for distribution of free youth passes for low income students • work with local school administrators to develop a program for selling youth passes to all other students • secure matching funds • develop a marketing program for the purpose of successfully selling 15,000 youth passes in the coming school year at an annual fee of $150 per year • amend the District's fare policy to provide for a pilot program eliminating the current $27 per month youth pass and all youth discount tickets
Fiscal Impact:
BOARD ACTION:
$400,000 annually (two year pilot program) plus potential revenue loss of up to $3.4 million per year.
Approved as Recommended [ ] Approved with Modification(s) [X]
Other
[ ]
REFER TO BOARD ACTION ATTACHMENT, WHICH BY REFERENCE HERETO, IS MADE A PART OF THESE MINUTES. The above order was passed and adopted on February 21, 2002. Rose Martinez, District Secretary By
GM Memo No. 02-029 Subject: Youth/School Pass Meeting Date: February 7, 2002 Page 2 of 3
Background/Discussion: The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) approved a two year pilot program to provide free bus passes for middle and high school students in the AC Transit service area whose families qualify for the school lunch program. As approved, the MTC will provide $1 million per year in funds which require an equal match in local funding. The MTC further stipulates that AC Transit provide $400,000 of the locally required matching funds and that the District is otherwise responsible for identifying and securing the other $600,000 matching funds. Since the adoption of the MTC program in December, staff met with advocates for the program and have identified the following stipulations for the establishment of a school bus pass program: • • • • •
School administrators are responsible for certifying eligibility for free bus passes via eligibility determination for the school lunch program. Stickers or some appropriate bus pass designation will be applied to student photo identification badges of students receiving free passes prior to lamination of the ID. Each participating school district will assist the District in promoting an annual bus pass to be purchased by students who are not eligible for free passes. Stickers or some appropriate bus pass designation will be applied to student photo identification badges of students purchasing the annual pass prior to lamination of the ID. School administrators will assist the District in identifying private community groups to serve as fiscal conduits for the purpose of purchasing annual passes for students who choose to pay for the annual pass on a quarterly or monthly basis.
Several service related issues need to be researched and resolved. In one case, Fremont currently operates a service for middle and high school students whereby families pay a per student annual subscription rate of $300 per year. This service has specific limits for participation based upon distance a student lives from the school and AC Transit's current school ridership in Fremont consists of students living within the limits who are not eligible for the subscription service. Therefore, it is entirely possible that home to school ridership for AC Transit could double in the Fremont service area as a result of the free and reduced price pilot program. Additionally, staff estimates trip increases of from two to five million per year as a result of this program which may require additional school service during peak hours. With regard to local matching funds, staff is discussing the potential for funding with the Bay Area Quality Management District and the Alameda and Contra Costa County Congestion Management Agencies and appropriate county social services agencies.
GM Memo No. 02-029 Subject: Youth/School Pass Meeting Date: February 7, 2002 Page 3 of 3
Thus far Alameda County is committing $50,000 annually in TANF funds and Contra Costa County has proposed up to $250,000 in Measure C and TANF funding combined. The Central Contra Costa County Transportation Authority has opposed using any transit funding for this purpose and it is staff's understanding that WESTCAT and TriDelta transit concur in this opposition. The District currently receives approximately $5 million in revenue from the sale of youth passes and discount tickets. It is not known how much of this revenue is attributable to students whose families qualify for the school lunch program. There are approximately 100,000 middle school and high school students in the AC Transit service area. One third of these students (33,000) families currently qualify for the school lunch program. Under this program, these 33,000 students will automatically receive a free bus pass leaving a market to purchase a monthly or annual pass of less than 70,000 students. Currently, the District sells 7,500 youth passes per year. Considering the $2 million annual subsidy, which includes $400,000 in funding from AC Transit, the District will have to sell approximately 20,000 $150 annual passes each year (or more than 16,000 $15 monthly passes each month) in order to break even. Therefore, there is considerable revenue risk in this program. In this regard, at a meeting including the elected officials advocating for this program and members of the MTC, when it was determined to move this program forward to the MTC it was agreed that if the District develops this program and is not selling adequate passes to cover the revenue risk, the group would reconvene in September and consider moving the second year funding forward and revisiting the entire program. Prior Relevant Board Actions/Policies: The Board previously endorsed a program for the provision of free youth passes to low income students in the AC Transit service area and received an update on this subject at its meeting held on January 24, 2002. Attachments:
MTC letter to President Williams, January 4, 2002 School Pass Pilot Project Evaluation
Approved by:
Rick Fernandez, General Manager
Prepared by:
Jim Gleich, Deputy General Manager Kathleen Kelly, Deputy General Manager, Service Development
Date Prepared:
January 25, 2002
BOARD ACTION – February 21, 2002: Public Speakers: 1. Assemblywoman Dion Aroner, spoke reiterating support for the program. 2. Alicia Gilmore, Oakland resident, addressed the Board in favor of the program. 3. Julie Ini, Oakland resident, addressed the Board in favor of the program. [Staff pointed out a modification to the report to remove reference to a private non-profit entity that could serve as a fiscal conduit for an annual pass program that is no longer an option.] MOTION: PIRAS/WALLACE to approve the recommendation outlined in the staff report with amendments shown below for bullets 1 and 5 and authorize staff to proceed toward the implementation of the program. • • • • •
Work with local school administrators to develop a program for distribution of free youth passes for students who qualify for the school lunch program. Work with local school administrators to develop a program for selling youth passes to all other students. Secure matching funds. Develop a marketing program for the purpose of successfully selling 15,000 youth passes in the coming school year at an annual fee of $150 per year Bring a resolution to amend the District’s fare policy to provide for a pilot program changing the current the $27.00 per month youth pass and all youth discount tickets to $15.00 per month.
Ayes:
Directors Piras, Wallace, Harper, Creason, Vice President Peeples, Director Cross, President Williams – 7 Noes: None - 0 Absent: None – 0 Abstain: None – 0
Gl/l MemoNo.02{29 Attachment
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I am writing to confirmthe Commission'sactiontakenat its meetingon December19,2001,to supporta two-yearpilot programto providefreeAC Transitbuspassesto low-incomestudentsin middleandhigh schoolsthroughout at the AC Transitserviceareawith a goalof increasingthesestudents'attendance for program school. This actionincludesthe tbllowing Commissionexpectations implementation: L AC Transitwill reducethe priceof their monthlyyouthpassfrom $27to $15per monthfor all studentsin their servicearea. This price change would becomeeffectivein time for the beginningof the 2402103school yeax. 2 . For the 2002103 and2003/04schoolyears,AC Transitwill offer free youthpassesto low-incomemiddleandhigh schoolstudentsparticipating in the FreeandReducedLunch(FRL) programin all schooldistricts throughouttheir serviceareaandwho usetransitto getto/from schoolor afterschoolprograms 3 . MTC will provide$l million peryearin LIFT programfundsfor thetwoyearpilot. AC Transitwill beresponsible for assembling the $1 million localmatchfrom the following sources:AC Transitfunds,MeasureB, MeasureC, countyTANF funds,the Transportation Fundfor CleanAir (TFCA) or others.The CommissionrsquiresthatAC Transitprovidea minimumof $400,000of therequired$l million localmatchfrom its own districtfirnds. 4 . The MTC commitmentwill be basedon the 50/50matchrequirementof the LIFT programsothat,if the localfundingis lessthan$1 million,the LIFT fundswouldbereducedaccordingly. 5 .
MTC's financialparticipationduringthetwo-yearpilot is intendedto explorethe effectof lower/freetransitfareson schoolattendance and a cushion proposed for permanent serveas AC Transit'stransitionto a reductionin its youthpassfare. MTC's financialparticipationis limited to thetwo-yearpilot periodonly.
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6- MTC will provide$65,000for anevaluationof thepilot programin AC Transit's$efl/iceareaandan evaluationof studentfarepoliciesalready adoptedby othertransitjurisdictionsin the Bay Areaandelsewhereto identiff what could be effectivealternativesthat canincreaseattendance by lowincome students.Thesewill includoprogramsat the San FranciscoMuni, SantaClaraVTA, SamTrans, BART, Sacramento RT, andPortlandTri-Met. The sourceof fundsfor this two-yearpilot programis the Low IncomeFlexible (LIFT) Program,a regionwide discretionarypro$am availableto Transportation all nine countiesin the Bay Area. In committingthe $1 million per yearfor two yearsfor the low-incomestudentpasspilot, the Commissionwill havereduced the amountof frrndsavailablefor otherprojects. Therefore,no additionalLIFT projectswill be consideredfor theAC Transitserviceareauntil FY?004/05unless therearefundsremainingfollowing the programmingof projectsfor other jurisdictions. MTC will be allocatingLIFT fundsin spring 2002,following theprogram'scall for projects.We would expectanapplicationfrom AC Transitat that time that incorporates the provisionsoutlinedabove. MTC staffwill beginwork immediatelywith your staffandthe schooldisticts to developan evaluationplan for thisprogram,with a goalof presentingit to the Commission'sPlanningand Operations Committeeat its meetingon February8. I appreciate the hardwork of all involvedin developingthis pilot programandI look forwardto a successfuloutcomethat canbe fully incorporatedinto AC Transit'sfarestructurefollowing this two-yearperiod. If you haveany questions aboutthe provisionsoutlinedhereor next steps,pleasecontactAm Flemer, MTC's DeputyDirector,Operations, at (510)817-3240or email:
[email protected]. Sincerely,
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GM MemoNo.02-029 Attachment
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SchoolPassPilot ProjectEvaluation January31,2002 DRAFT FOR COMMENT MTC will conductan evaluationof thepilot program(directlyor throughcontrectto fl third party),working closelywith AC Transit,schooldistrictstaff,the counties,and Thefollowingarethe objectives againstwhichthe pilot communityorganizations, programwill be evaluated: amonglow-incomemiddleandhigh schoolstudents. 1. Increaseschoolattendance We will measurethe numberof davsattendedbeforeandaftera sfudentreceivesthe freeschoolpass, r I r
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Participating schoolswill needto track,collectandreportthis dataon a monthly basis. gettingthefreepasswill needto be identifiedby nameor numberfor Students trackingpurposes. It is essentialfor the "before"measurement that schoolssaveattendance records from 2001-02sowe canextracttargetedstudents'recordsafterthey havebeen identifiedin 2002-03.(Sincethisis a two yearpilot project,we will alsobe trackingaffendance for 2003-04.) d writtenagreement on datacollectionandreportingwill be developedbetween eachschoolandMTC. While basicdatasuchas"passes the insold"will be collectedat all 80 schools, depthanalysisof thepilot program(whathappened, why, key issues,etc.)will be focusedon a repre$entative sampleof 20+ schools, d controlgroupwill be identifiedconsisting of schoolsoutsidetheAC Transit seruiceareawith similardemographics, locations,etc.but withoutdiscounted Iowincomestudentpasses. for Specificcriteriawill needto be determined selecting theseschools.
low-incomestudents'participation activities. 2. Increase in after-school We will measure the numberof daysthata studentparticipates in after-school activitiesbeforeandafterreceivingthe freeschoolpass.Thiswill be accomplished andprogram throughsurveysandinterviewswith participating students staff/administrators.
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programoperators, Work with schools,schooldistricts,after-school etc.to programs. identifyafter-schoo after-school May conductsurveysthroughtargetedprogramsand/ordirectlywith students.
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Controlgroupof studentsand/orafter-schoolpfogramswill be identifiedoutside the AC Transitservicearea.
To supportthe aboveanalysesandto furtherour understanding of the links between transportation issuesandschoolattendance amonglow*incomi students,MTC will: A. Reviewdatacollectedby AC Transitthat measures the impactof the schoolpass program(andrelatedchangesin passes, tickets,etc.)on both AC fare revenuesand operationalissues-dwell time,vehiclecrowding,security,scheduleadherence, fraud,etc. B- Work with AC frsnsit to quantifythe level of servicesprovidedto targetedschools andafter-schoolsites.
c. Examineothernon-transportationfactorsaffectingattendancein theproject area-school violence,academicperformance, family problems,etc.
D . Examinethe impactof schoolscheduling,the locationof after*schoolprogramsand specialschoolprograms, andotherschoolpolicydecisions on AC Transitandother agencies'abilityto providecost*effective busservices. E Reviewandanalyzedataon otherstudentsubsidyprogramssponsored by transit agencies in theBay Areaandelsewhere, comparingtheireffeitiveness for increasing schoolattendance with theresultsproducedby thepilot program.Thiswill include Muni, samtrans,BART, sacramento RT, PortlandTri-Met ind othertransit programs. F , Collectandanalyzeinformationon the historyandcurrentstatusof federal,stateand
local fundingfor schooltransportation.
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