It was evident last Tuesday evening that Polk Superintendent Darrell Sorrells was troubled over the amount of fuel currently available to the district’s transportation department.

Apparently, other superintendents across the state and officials at the Georgia Department of Education are worried too.

Sorrells said during Tuesday’s community input session that fuel supplies used to keep the 59 school busses in Polk County up and running have hit a low mark. He attributed the low amount of fuel to problems stemming from Hurricane

Katrina.

“I’ve called around to many vendors and some of them won’t even give me a bid over the phone. They say that whatever it costs when they start to put it in our tanks is what we’ll have to pay.”

Sorrells said Friday morning that 7,500 gallons of diesel were delivered to the district’s transportation department. They had been waiting on that shipment for several days.

Sorrells also said Tuesday that officials from the state department sent out an e-mail to districts around Georgia, explaining the procedures on “what to do if we have to cancel school.”

The district has already taken steps to curb their fuel use. Sorrells said that field trips that have not already been approved by the board would be suspended for now.

“Field trips are nice,” said Sorrells, “but our main priority is to get students back and forth.”

School buses in Polk County run 59 routes per weekday, said Jana Ruark, fleet coordinator for the district. She said that roughly translates into 4,000 miles of travel every school day.

Richie Moates, the district’s shop foreman, said that typically, busses have a tank capacity of 100 gallons and get six miles to the gallon.