PEARL RIVER, N.Y. — Bus ride eligibility for some Pearl River School District students will remain the same following the results of a community vote last week, Pearl River Patch reports.

Pearl River students in grades 9 through 12 who live within three miles of school and eighth-graders within two miles of school are not eligible to take the school bus. Those increased walking distances were passed by voters before the 2011-12 school year.

Previously, all Pearl River High School students except those within 1.5 miles of the building had been eligible to take the bus to school, according to the news source.

Recently, more than 100 residents of the city signed a petition to return the limit to 1.5 miles. However, when voters last week approved the district’s budget, the 1.5-mile bus eligibility proposal was narrowly defeated by 31 votes, 1,041 to 1,010, Pearl River Patch reports in an update.

If the measure had passed, the cost for the additional transportation service would have had to come from reserves because it was not included in the proposed 2012-13 budget.