Faced with high fuel costs and a growing student population, the Douglas County School District this month launched a pilot program that allows advertisers to pitch products on yellow school buses in exchange for thousands of dollars in revenue.
The south metro area district contracted with “Media Advertising in Motion” to run a variety of bus ads, including plugs for programs from the CW2, a television network.
The ads should bring in roughly $13,000 this month at no cost to the district, said Sean McGraw, executive director of the Douglas County Educational Foundation, a nonprofit that raises funds for educational enrichment in the classroom.
“It’s basically a program to offset transportation costs,” he said.
The district joins a handful of Colorado districts – including Cherry Creek – and others nationally that are seeking ways to pay for rising transportation costs. Jefferson County School District officials are also discussing using bus ads, according to Lorie Gillis, chief financial officer for Jeffco schools.
Richard Collier, executive director of facility support for the Cherry Creek School District, said the district has been using bus ads for about two years. The district, which operates 230 buses and has a $12 million transportation budget, anticipates collecting up to $90,000 in a year, he said.
He said district officials hope to pay for a global positioning system and security cameras.
During the 2005-06 school year, the Douglas County School District budgeted $1.2 million for fuel, but ended up going over budget by more than $677,000 because of fuel prices alone, said Phil Onofrio, the district’s finance director.
But the idea of using advertising to raise revenue doesn’t sit well with everyone.
Jo Ann Wickens, the mother of an eighth- grader. said she was shocked when she dropped her child off for school and saw ads for “America’s Next Top Model” on a bus.
“If you have to advertise, don’t do a television show,” she said. “If they have to do it, do it for something educational.”
Gary Ruskin of Commercial Alert, an Oregon- based nonprofit, said “the purpose of advertising is antithetical to the purpose of education.”
It’s “to promote the sale of a product,” and putting it on buses puts “our children up for sale,” he said.
Robin Leeds, an industry specialist with the National School Transportation Association, said the use of bus ads has slowed down since Colorado Springs was the first district to use ads in 1994.
Many states don’t allow it for safety reasons, she said. “What you want motorists to watch are the signals, the stop lights and kids getting off the bus, not reading ads and missing safety cues.”
Staff writer Karen Rouse can be reached at 303-954-1684 or krouse@denverpost.com.
