Thanks to some revision, an infusion of new buses and a solid staff, Brad Redmond, transportation director of the West Fargo School District, said that his department is winning the battle as area schools continue their record growth.

";Really, we feel like we're doing O.K.,"; he said in a report to the West Fargo School Board on Monday. ";We have the backing of a great Board, and we've been able to work very well with the administration to make the changes we've made.";

But there have been obstacles.

High gas prices have Redmond and Business Manager Mark Lemer thinking of a budget revision. And road construction changes, especially on 45th Street in Fargo and 13th Avenue West in West Fargo, have kept routes off schedule throughout the first month of the school year.

";It's (45th Street construction) pushed a lot of north/south traffic over to Sheyenne Street, and we've been struggling with that. There have been days where the only place, logistically, to cross Sheyenne Street is Main Avenue or wind through Elmwood Court and take 19th Avenue. The lines at Seventh Avenue East are getting pretty long at the four-way stop,"; Redmond said.

Future issues loom large for the District, Redmond said. The Ninth Grade Center, which will be built and opened by 2007 at the intersection of Ninth Street East and 40th Avenue South, will require additional resources, Redmond said. However, the opening of an elementary school in the Eagle Run area will ease some of the pain felt by a fleet being stretched to the limit.

";We'll have some kids that we're currently busing to Westside in a 'no busing' zone, so we may actually free up some buses when that school opens,"; Redmond said.

As for gas prices, the District budgeted $135,000 for diesel fuel to move the 45 buses in the fleet. Last year, however, the transportation department used more than 63,000 gallons of diesel fuel, accumulating more than 450,000 miles moving kids here and there.

";That's putting us on a pretty tough pace,"; Lemer said. ";Really, we need the price of diesel to drop closer to that $2 or $2.25 mark.";

Gas prices have also put more students on buses, Redmond said. With parents curbing their teens, additional high school students have been taking the bus to school.

";It's been a new thing this fall, and we're figuring out how to deal with the additional people, instruments and things like that.";

As for that growing population, Superintendent Chuck Cheney told the board that 5,773 students are enrolled in the District right now, a new record. That's due, in large part, to continued growth in the Eagle Run area.

";Westside is using every classroom right now,"; Cheney said, ";which is something that we didn't foresee happening for some time. It appears that the Eagle Run school will happen just in time, or if anything, a year late.";

Westside passed South as the largest elementary school in the District, with 557 students. That's 60 more students than the administration accounted for in preparing this year's budget.

";It just continues to meet, and in most cases exceed, all of our expectations,"; Cheney said.