Warren County School District officials are on the hot seat when it comes to the amount of time children will spend on school buses next year.

Transportation is one of the most persistent questions about the closure of the Youngsville and Sheffield high school buildings that has been raised in school board meetings for nearly a year. Parents aren’t wrong to have questions. Busing children to and from school, particularly young children, affects the entire family in one way or another.

As we’ve said in the past, concerns about transportation are a hurdle, not an insurmountable obstacle to plans to close Youngsville and Sheffield’s high school buildings.

House Rep. Jim Struzzi, R-Indiana, may have an idea to lower the hurdle by allowing schools to use larger vans for student transportation. Warren officials have already mentioned vans as a way to keep student bus times to 40 minutes per trip. State law currently limits school districts to a maximum of 10-person passenger vans. Struzzi wants to allow 11- to 15-passenger vans – a number that could increase the territory a van can cover on a trip and reduce the amount of time some students would spend on a full-sized bus.

We don’t know if Struzzi’s legislation will pass the state Legislature in time to be of use to Warren County School District officials by this fall – though it would be nice if the larger vans are an option. Legislation tends to move at a snail’s pace, and schools would need lead time to be able to purchase the buses, hire drivers and change their bus routes.

Struzzi’s legislation isn’t likely to help by September, but could relieve some pressure in future years if his bill makes it through the legislative sausage grinder. But it is an example of the type of thinking that we need both locally and at the state level if schools are to both face their fiscal reality and provide the best service it can afford for school children and their families.