Wednesday, August 11, 1999
City busing cut hits small schools
$1M cut in budget for transportation threatens Nov. levy
BY DANA DiFILIPPO
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati Public Schools officials maintain that cutting $1 million from their transportation budget primarily will affect about 550 students now enrolled in schools outside their attendance areas.
But some worry that the cut — in which the district will drop yellow-bus service to schools with fewer than 30 riders — will disproportionately hurt charter schools and private schools, which typically are small.
As CPS figures out which students will be affected, some say one consequence is clear: Monday's decision will further threaten support for a tax increase district officials plan to seek in November.
“"Take careful aim and shoot yourself in the foot' is the operating mode these days,” said Cincinnati Federation of Teachers President Tom Mooney, who questioned the cut's timing.
Martha Gavin, a Price Hill mother whose son will be a first-grader at Concordia Lutheran this fall, agreed: “This is so infuriating. If you need to make a cut in service, that's fine, you make a cut in service. But you don't do it three weeks before school starts.”
Kenton Cashell, CPS' business executive, said the cuts mostly will affect three groups of students in kindergarten through eighth grade:
• Open enrollment transfers. Students in neighborhood schools can attend other neighborhood schools if the transfer enhances racial balance. Current open-enrollment students still will be served, but no new open-enrollment transfers will be allowed, Mr. Cashell said.
• Special transfers. Stu dents can transfer to a school outside their attendance area with a principal's permission. (Parents seek such transfers for many reasons, ranging from child-care accommodations to a child's conflicts with peers.) This affects about 400 students.
• Students who receive payment in lieu of transportation. This applies to students at schools with fewer than 30 riders. The state pays $172 per pupil when transportation is impractical — for example, for students at schools with less than 30 riders or those who live somewhere inaccessible to buses. This affects 120-150 students.
“This is a difficult decision, but a million cut in transportation is a million that didn't have to be cut from the schools,” Mr. Cashell said.
State law requires districts to transport students in kindergarten through eighth grade who live two or more miles from school. CPS historically has provided service to those who live more than one mile from school.
Limiting service to schools with more than 30 riders prompted anxiety in some educators at private and charter schools.
“I'm not really sure how this affects us, and that concerns me,” said Pauline Childs, director of Oak Tree Montessori, downtown, adding that she is awaiting a return call from CPS' transportation department. The school enrolls about 75; fewer than half used bus transportation last year, Ms. Childs added.
CPS transported 29,589 public school students and 7,500 private and parochial students last year. The district spent $20.4 million to transport those students, compared with this year's estimated cost of $20.2 million, which includes the $1 million in cuts.
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