HOOVER, Alabama - The Hoover school board tonight rescinded its July decision to end bus service for most students in the 2014-15 school year.

Superintendent Andy Craig said school officials now are exploring ways to continue offering bus service with the school system's own bus fleet and drivers and charge students a fee to ride the bus.

In the past, that option did not seem legally feasible, but the more school officials have researched the idea and talked with state and federal officials about it, it seems to be something the school system can legally pursue, Craig said.

Tonight's vote by the Hoover school board was met with loud applause and cheers from Hoover parents and residents who have been calling for the restoration of bus service since the vote in July.

Numerous school bus advocates who have sponsored protests about the bus decision came forward to thank the school board for "doing the right thing."

Craig said he went to Washington D.C. to talk with U.S. Department of Justice officials about the school bus issue last week and has had some preliminary discussions with Alabama Department of Education officials about the internal fee-based bus system.

"There's still a lot of homework to be done on that," Craig said. "It's way too early to speculate on some of the details."

Hoover school officials had been in talks with a private transportation company about providing bus service for Hoover students separately from the school system. However, the fees for students through an outside provider were looking unaffordable, particularly for people with multiple children, Hoover school board member Earl Cooper said.

Some Hoover residents were reporting that parents of John Carroll Catholic High School students paid that company - STS (School Transportation Solutions) -- $135 a month per child who rides the bus.

Cooper said that if the Hoover school system can keep its own bus system and still receive transportation funding from the state while it charges fees, the fees should be much more reasonable.

"It's not going to be anything like the numbers that have been tossed around here arbitrarily," Cooper said. Some of those numbers have been "outrageous," he said.

Craig said the ability for the Hoover school system to both receive the state allocation for transportation and collect fees from bus riders was the primary contributing factor in the decision to rescind the July vote to end bus service for most students.

"It's great to reach this point. It's a point of stability," he said. But there still is a lot of work to be done to make this new idea happen, he said.

Mandy Solomon, a South Shades Crest Elementary School parent who started the Save the Hoover Bus System Facebook page, thanked the school board for rescinding its July decision and encouraged the board to consider a staggered fee schedule that would help low-income parents.

Jennifer Heerten, a mother with three children, said parents will need to know the fees as soon as possible so they know whether they can afford to stay in Hoover.

The Hoover school board on Monday, Dec. 9, 2013, voted to rescind its decision in July to end school bus service for most students in the 2014-15 school year. (Jon Anderson/janderson@al.com)

School board President Paulette Pearson said it's hard to say yet what the fees will be because the Legislature doesn't meet until the spring to decide how much funding it will provide for school transportation.

Lisa Singer, a Spain Park High School parent, said Hoover residents need to lobby state legislators to make sure the Legislature adequately funds transportation. With 2014 being an election year for legislators, they should be paying attention to constituents, she said.

Officials with the state Department of Education in recent months have talked about the importance of better funding school transportation. Craig said there are a lot of demands on the state's Education Trust Fund.

"Typically, historically, transportation hasn't fared well in that list of demands," Craig said. "From where I sit, it looks like there is going to be a wide array of demands as well coming up in this legislative session, so we'll just have to wait and see."

Robin Schultz, a parent from Hoover's Bluff Park community, also thanked the school board and superintendent for rescinding the July decision to end bus service.

"It's a first step. We still have a problem," Schultz said. "We still have a deficit. We still have a bigger issue we need to talk about."

The budget recommended by Craig and passed by the school board in September predicted school officials will spend $17 million more than they will receive in revenues in fiscal 2014. Craig has said school officials will take a multi-faceted approach to reduce the school system's deficit spending, including finding places in the budget to cut and ways to increase revenue.

It likely will take three to five years to bring spending and revenues back into balance, he said. In the meantime, there is enough of a fund balance to sustain the school system, he said.

Schultz said school leaders and city officials need to establish better dialogue with one another to begin the healing process between the two groups and make the city school system what it needs to be.

Dennis Cruz, a Hoover High School parent who came to tonight's meeting prepared to talk about potential places to make budget cuts and revenue enhacements to save the school buses, told the board that school bus advocates want to forge a positive relationship with the school board and have open dialogue to share ideas and come up with solutions.

"There's money to be made in Hoover and there's money to be saved in Hoover," Cruz said.

He's hoping the school board will be receptive to residents' ideas but didn't feel compelled to go into detail about them tonight, given the board's decision tonight on the bus issue.

Pearson said the school board is open to working with residents to solve the school district's problems. Craig concurred.

"We certainly want to involve stakeholders," he said. "There are a lot of internal processes that go into school system operations. It's always important to involve folks in those decisions as best you can."

Heerten asked Craig to provide monthly updates about next year's bus service and fees so parents can do the planning they need to do.

Cooper commended Craig for taking the initiative to go to Washington D.C. last week to talk to Justice Department officials about the school system's plans regarding transportation. "That took courage," he said.

Hoover school officials revealed last month that the Justice Department's civil rights division had asked the school system to provide information about its transportation program after some people complained the school bus cuts were designed to chase away black, Hispanic and lower-income students who depend on bus service to get to school.

Craig and other school officials have adamantly denied those accusations and said the school bus cuts were necessary in order to cut costs and help school officials reduce operating deficits in an environment where revenues are declining and expenses rising.

Craig said tonight the school district remains in discussions with the Justice Department regarding alternative transportation delivery models as part of its review. "No determination has been made. No agreement has been reached," he said. "We look forward to our continued analysis and dialogue with the Department of Justice seeking ways to best serve the students of Hoover."

This article was updated numerous times tonight with additional information.

See more news from Hoover at www.al.com/hoover