Stacey Mendenhall wants her children to attend Sierra Unified schools as she and her husband did some 25 years ago -- even though they have an hourlong bus ride from their Watts Valley home, just like their father did when he was a kid.

But her family may soon have to pay for busing if school bus funding is eliminated, as proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown.

"I would be willing to pay for it to keep my kids up here," said Mendenhall.

Sierra Unified is considering several budget-tightening measures. Charging for bus service, district officials say, is one option, as is cutting staff, reducing class options or cramming more students into classes. The district also is asking voters to approve a bond measure -- which residents rejected in recent years.

Rural districts such as Sierra stand to be the biggest losers under Brown's proposed budget.

And once money for transportation is eliminated from the state budget, officials say, don't expect to see those dollars return.

"It's going to be permanent," said Kirk Hunter, general manager with Southwest Transportation Agency, which provides bus service for 7,000 students in 12 rural Fresno County districts. His agency could lose more than $1.3 million in state funds beginning in July.

Fifty-nine school districts statewide stand to lose more than $1,000 in busing money per student next year. Eight are in Fresno, Madera, Mariposa and Tulare counties.

The cuts that took effect through December's budget triggers as well as Brown's proposed cuts would hit less-affluent areas hardest. School districts where more than 75% of students qualify for federal free and reduced lunches would lose twice as much as schools where fewer than 25% of students qualify for the program.

December's budget triggers deleted $248 million from districts in busing money. Under Brown's proposed cuts beginning July 1, districts would lose remaining busing funds -- $619 million.

Sierra Unified, already in financial straits because of declining enrollment in recent years, would lose $1,144 per student next school year -- about $1.1 million in revenue -- if the transportation money is cut.

That's on top of $521,000 cut by December's budget triggers.

The biggest cuts statewide would come to Desert Center, a tiny district in Riverside County that would lose $7,806 per student next year.

By comparison, schools in Millbrae, a city in suburban San Mateo County, would lose $2 per student and the Piedmont district in Alameda County would lose $9 per student in busing money.

All aboard

Even under the worst-case scenario, districts say bus service won't end. If students don't come to school, districts don't get paid. But officials say the proposed cuts would be devastating -- especially in districts such as Sierra, where families rely heavily on buses.

About 1,050 of 1,475 students there take a bus to school daily, said Melissa Ireland, the district's superintendent as well as its junior high and high school principal.

Some students ride a bus 90 minutes each way in the district that stretches between Huntington Lake, Pine Flat Reservoir and Millerton Lake.

To free up more cash for transportation and other uses, Sierra trustees Thursday night voted to put a bond measure on the June election ballot, said board President John Maxwell. Property owners would be taxed at a rate of $37 per $100,000 of property value, and the money would pay off about $5 million in construction debt for Foothill School.

But the district may have an uphill battle, because similar measures were rejected in 2008 and 2010. As a result, Foothill's construction debt payments come out of the district's general fund.