Advertisements could be placed on the outside of some Austin ISD school buses if the district's board of trustees revisits a contract approval it tabled at its April 22 meeting.

"I would be happy to move that we remove [the item] from the agenda or that we as a board have some discussion on whether we want to turn our buses into moving billboards that distract drivers," trustee Jayme Mathias said.

The board now plans to discuss in a work session the vote in question, which, if approved, would award Steep Creek Media LLC a three-year agreement to add ads to 400 of AISD's school buses. Board documents showed the move would start with about 40 buses and bring in $43,200 in revenue in its first year, double that by its second year, and by its fifth year would bring in $388,000 in revenue.

Board President Vincent Torres explained the concept was introduced to AISD more than a year ago when the district was seeking funds to help make up for state budget cuts. Mathias emphasized that four board members who were not on the board at the time—himself, Gina Hinojosa, Amber Elenz and Ann Teich—had not yet been briefed on the subject.

Teich noted that board documents indicated other districts in Texas had implemented similar programs "with mixed results" and said she will want clarification on that description.

AISD looked to other Texas districts with bus ads to ensure AISD was being competitive, Superintendent Meria Carstarphen said. AISD searched for a partner to: manage soliciting advertisers, pay all production and installation expenses, bill and collect funds from advertisers and remit a share of the revenue back to AISD. Under the proposed contract, the buses cannot display ads that promote religious institutions, the use of tobacco or alcohol, sexually-oriented businesses, political parties or "businesses that promote body art services," among others.

"We did not see anything where data said [adding bus ads] was a distraction that increased the percent of accidents or anything of the sort," Carstarphen said.