VOICES: ‘What’s happening with school transportation this year?’

Jocelyn Rhynard is a school board member on the Dayton Public Schools Board of Education and advocates for public education at the state and federal level. CONTRIBUTED

Jocelyn Rhynard is a school board member on the Dayton Public Schools Board of Education and advocates for public education at the state and federal level. CONTRIBUTED
Ideas & Voices
By Jocelyn Rhynard
20 hours ago
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This is the question that citizens of Dayton ask Dayton School Board members almost every day. The answer is complex due to numerous state laws and mandates. The leaders, administrators, and board members of Dayton Public Schools have worked tirelessly to solve school transportation problems.

At the root of the problem is the Ohio state law requiring that Dayton Public Schools transport not just the students enrolled in Dayton Public Schools but also students enrolled in nonpublic schools across the city. Passed 12 years ago, this law has created an enormous strain on our already limited resources. Dayton Public Schools is at the mercy of nonpublic schools’ schedules, resulting in three separate start times for public schools to accommodate the burden of transporting nonpublic students. The school district does not have the fleet or the drivers to transport public high school students and is unable to purchase the needed 70 additional buses and recruit and train the accompanying drivers before the start of the school year. For the last few years, DPS has purchased and distributed RTA passes to public high school students (and by law, to the nonpublic high school students in Dayton).

If not for this law, Dayton Public Schools could transport every one of our students, kindergarten to 12th grade, on our yellow buses.

The newest law (part of HB 96) now prohibits any high school students who use district-purchased bus passes from using the downtown RTA hub. Banning these students from the RTA hub effectively removes their ability to travel to and from school.

Many creative transportation alternatives for high school students have been explored within DPS and in meetings with our community and legislative partners. DPS school leaders want nothing more than to transport all public school students safely to and from school, and many creative options have been offered with a good faith consideration from DPS. Those who say otherwise do not understand the logistics of transporting thousands of students to and from their homes every single day within current constraints.

As a DPS Board Member, I am deeply grateful for the community support and willingness to partner with DPS; however, those offers of partnership cannot be at the expense of student safety. A partnership with RTA and their limited service line used five years ago would be welcome but is not currently possible. Proposed alternative hubs have been explored but are neither feasible nor safe solutions for student riders.

The solution to Dayton Public Schools’ transportation difficulties is simple and clear: DPS should not be mandated to transport students that do not attend Dayton Public Schools. True partners of DPS should call for state legislators to no longer require public school districts to transport nonpublic students.

Jocelyn Rhynard is a school board member on the Dayton Public Schools Board of Education and advocates for public education at the state and federal level.

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About the Author

Jocelyn Rhynard