Akron City Schools not Eligible for Busing
By Ashlyne Wilson and Alexis Oswald
In Akron, 10 city schools are not receiving any school busing as Akron Public Schools (APS) must provide busing to 29 charter and private schools.
The students attending these 10 public schools, under the APS policy, are not eligible for transportation by APS because the distance between their school of assignment and their homes are less than two miles apart. Students who are in open enrollment do not qualify for APS transportation either.
Anything over two miles is grounds for eligibility for transportation by the schools. Those 29 charter and private schools are all well over two miles from their student’s residences, so transportation for those schools are a higher priority.
This issue is not only in Akron, but all over the nation as well. Public school districts around the nation is experiencing shortages for school buses for elementary and middle school children.
Debra Foulk, executive director of business affairs for APS said that there are many reasons as to why school districts across America are having these issues.
“One of which is school district right sizing to make sure that their facilities meet their student needs,” she said. “I think there’s been a change in that for a lower amount of buildings which made the attendance zones larger than they were.”
The consistent building of more charter schools is another reason that public school districts are seeing a shortage because charter schools tend to be farther out than public schools and have a greater need for transporting students. Foulk said that the advent of more public charter schools around the country has severely changed transportation for public schools Ohio because the state law states that the public school district is responsible for the transport, along with its own district schools. Although the charter schools have the option to get their own transportation, which would certainly make thing easier for the Akron school district, they are not required to and have relied on APS for transportation for years.
William Andexler, APS transportation director, said that some of the other problems of finding enough transportation is finding qualified bus drivers and the expense of buses.
“Being a school bus driver, you’re a couple notches up on restrictions,” he said. “And also school buses are very expensive. They’re averaging about $92,000 to $98,000 for a school bus. It’s very expensive to get school transportation.”
In an effort to find the best option to deal with the bus issue, APS conducted two studies in the last three years to see what would be the best option for transporting students to school.
“We were asked by the board to look to see if we could lower our mileage for qualification down to 1.5 miles, and one mile because the state does offer some reimbursement for that,” said Foulk. “During those studies, based on the current number of students that we felt eligible that we could then determine who would be on a bus, we would need an additional 60 buses, and additional 60 drivers, more mechanics, additional work days, more insurance, and to put that together that would have doubled the transportation budget from $12 million to $24 million annually.”
Based on that high expense, they decided it was in their best interest to keep the eligibility limit to two miles. There just isn’t enough funding available and after getting funding in 2012 for a general operational budget levy, APS decided not to ask the voters for any more money.
Foulk says at this time the policy will not change and those city schools will likely not get any transportation anytime soon.
Since the students that do not live more than two miles away from their home are so close, they always have the option of walking, using a bike, the city bus or get dropped off by parents.