What’s good for Capital Metro works for Eanes.

In a split vote last week, the Eanes school board authorized district transportation director Timothy Wysong to negotiate a contract with Houston-based Steep Creek Media to bring in advertising for district school buses.

A narrow 4-3 vote gave the go ahead for the new source of revenue, projected to put $150,000 in district coffers by its fifth year. Board members directed Wysong to make sure the negotiated contract gave Steep Creek responsibility for deciding who could and could not advertise on district buses and asked that he set up a year-to-year contract that would allow the district to drop the idea if it turns sour.

Board member James Kallison, who once spoke out against the idea of school bus advertising, approved the recommendation.

“We are clearly in some extraordinary times, and I don’t mean that in a good way,” Kallison said. “We are under some remarkably restrictive financial limitations. Ordinarily I wouldn’t be in favor of this. But ordinarily, we wouldn’t make our teachers pay into employee health insurance. These are not ordinary times.”

Kallison pointed out that the $150,000 in annual revenue the district is hoping to bring in when the program gets rolling could fund three teachers.

“It’s additional revenue,” he said. “It’s not recaptured. We should explore negotiations and see where we can go.”

Board members Colleen Jones, Clint Sayers and Jim Strickland voted against the idea, expressing concerns about the cost of possible lawsuits arising from companies turned down as advertisers.

“Dr. Wellman, I guess you are hearing our concerns about potential litigation,” said board member Robert Durkee. “I know the city of Austin advertises on buses all the time, and they aren’t concerned about it. This school district has a special set of community standards. That’s important for (Steep Creek) to hear. We don’t want any exposure.”

Steep Creek will become a filter for the district in approving and turning down potential advertisers, Wysong said, adding that all advertising activity would be run through the district’s in-house attorney.

District officials hope the advertising firm will find ads the first year for eight of its 40 buses, with advertising building each year until the fifth year. Wysong said that the $150,000 annual revenue projection would require a 95-percent sellout of all three positions on buses approved by the state for bus advertising space.

“I’ve been pretty up front that I don’t care for this,” Strickland said. “I think some day we will come to the point where we have to do stuff like this. I just don’t know that we are there.”

“If it is an opportunity to fund additional staff, I am going to support it,” countered board member Ellen Balthazar.