Issaquah School District (ISD) dollars will be on the line next week as student bus-riders are tallied in an annual statewide head count.

From Monday, Oct. 5 through Friday Oct. 9, drivers are required to tally first-graders to high school seniors using the buses in the morning and count kindergarteners during their afternoon run.

The student bus count is used to determine the amount of funding the district’s Transportation Department will receive next year from Olympia, to continue the popular service.

The count’s importance has increased dramatically as school districts across the state struggle to maintain previous levels of funding.

Waving farewell to some of her students as busses full of children left Issaquah Valley Elementary School on Tuesday, Principal Diane Holt said the buses were so popular that her school was forced to re-draw bus routes to accommodate an influx of children from the Talus neighborhood.

She said she was happy the count was taking place after the school year was fully underway, giving parents and students a chance to settle into a commuting routine.

“In September, most kids first starting are often dropped off by their parents,” she said. “The kids who are riding the bus are usually riding the bus [by the time of the October count].”

Last year, however, ISD received only about half of it’s $6.6 million transportation funding from the state, and is now forced to make up the difference, even though funding for student bussing is part of the state’s constitutional mandate to provide for “basic education”.

Overall, approximately 4.4 percent of the ISD’s $149.6 million annual budget is used for the cost of transporting students.

In an effort to galvanize local support, school newsletters over the past several weeks have implored parents and subscribers to send their children to school using the buses during the annual count.

Students who live outside a one-mile radius from their school can use the free service.

According to ISD Transportation Director Jo Porter, the district reported 8,137 passengers last year — about half the district’s 16,000 students — and the number is set to continue increasing.

“I think more and more parents are putting kids on the bus,” Porter said.

Transportation funding is just one of the many sources of friction between the district and the state. Shrunken tax revenues from the economic recession and a disputed funding system are forcing school districts such as Issaquah to look for alternate sources of funding — such as a new levy, bond, or support from a non-profit foundation — or find ways to cut back on services.

The district eliminated dozens of positions and laid-off one teacher earlier this year as they adopted their budget for the next shool year.

ISD is currently ranked 271st out of the 295 school districts in terms of revenue per student, working out to nearly $1,000 less than the average school district in the State of Washington spends.

Porter also said the ISD faces unique transportation challenges in a district covering 110 square miles and divided by three mountains and a busy interstate highway.

“It takes more miles to get from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’,” she said, adding that residents always show strong support for the district’s needs.

The ISD plans to return to the ballot in February 2010 with three levies amounting to about $196 million over one to four years.

About $1.7 million is proposed for another 41 buses.

It last approached voters in 2006 with a $2.8 million School Bus Levy to buy 52 buses through the 2009-2010 school year.