The superintendent of schools would get greater authority when it comes to setting bus fares and school lunch prices as well as closing and consolidating public schools if several pending amendments to Department of Education administrative rules are adopted.

A monthlong series of hearings will begin today at Kapolei High School, where the public will be able to submit testimony on eight administrative rules up for amendment.

Four of the amendments have already gained public attention and dissent, including rule changes dealing with student locker searches and drug sniffing dogs. Other amendments include granting the superintendent authority to increase bus prices and school meal fees as well as the ability to initiate the closing of public schools with the approval of the Board of Education.

Comment from the public hearing process will be used by BOE members when they meet in May to make final decisions on the changes. Finalized rules will then have to be submitted to the governor for her signature.

Education officials say many of the rule changes will give the department greater flexibility to respond more rapidly to changes in food prices, gas prices and shifting demographics in the school population. They shrug off concerns that the rules could result in a more powerful Office of the Superintendent.

"The superintendent doesn't get any more power because the board ultimately has to approve everything," said Randy Moore, assistant superintendent of school facilities and student support.

Board of Education Chairman Garrett Toguchi said there would still be a check-and-balance mechanism in place under the rule changes.

"The current rules we have in place are unnecessarily bureaucratic. The proposed changes would make it more efficient while preserving processes in place for people to provide their input," Toguchi said.

In November, the BOE gave preliminary approval to rule changes that govern lunch prices so that school kids would potentially have to pay half of what it costs to prepare lunch. Students currently pay one-third of cost.

And with the cost of lunch averaging about $4.20, it's conceivable that students may be paying more than $2 to eat at school.

Currently, Chapter 37 allows the DOE to raise lunch prices only every two years. Moreover, officials are allowed to charge only one-third of the average cost for a lunch over the previous three years.

"The consequence of the current rule is that in an era of rapidly rising prices, you're stuck with a meal price that is well below cost," Moore said.

"If there is only so much money in the pot, the more money we have to pay for student meals, the less money we have to pay for student education," he said.

Toguchi stressed that any meal cost change under the revised rule would need the approval of the BOE. And in a time of economic strain on family budgets, many board members have already expressed reluctance to increase lunch prices.

Similarly, the board also has granted initial approval to changes governing student transportation.

One part of the change would allow the superintendent of schools to directly request the Board of Education to increase school bus prices.

Officials say that, like lunches, bus transportation is heavily subsidized by the DOE. It costs, on average, about $900 a year per student for the DOE to provide bus service, while students pay about $120 a year.

"Right now the price of the bus ride is in the rule, which means if you want to change the bus price you have to go through a long process of changing the rule," Moore said. "The proposal would remove the price from the rule and provide that the department set the price with the approval of the board," he said.

The amendment would also change what is referred to as the "walk distance." Currently, students living within a mile of their school cannot ride the bus, because they are considered within walking distance. But the amendment would increase the walking distance to a mile-and-a-half for students in grades six to 12.

The result would mean fewer buses on the street and a cost savings to the DOE.

However, several Neighbor Island BOE members including Big Island member Herbert Watanabe and Kaua'i member Maggie Cox have expressed opposition to changing the walk distance. They say many rural areas don't have sidewalks and forcing children to walk farther in those communities could be dangerous.

Education officials are pushing a proposal to make it easier to close or consolidate small public schools by amending Chapter 38. The amendment would shift the authority to initiate the consolidation process from complex area superintendents to Hamamoto. The amendment would allow the superintendent to initiate the process, call for public hearings and present a recommendation to the BOE.

Ultimately, the decision to close or consolidate a school would lie with the board. Education officials say the current process is arduous and has not resulted in a school closure since the 1970s.