“Hopefully, we will have fewer issues downtown,” Lawrence said.
The announcement comes after several years of debate over busing, mostly involving Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority and Dayton Public Schools.
Last April, Dunbar student Alfred Hale III was shot and killed outside of the downtown Dayton bus hub while on his way to school.
Julius Maurice Williamson Jr. was arrested in connection to his death and is facing two counts each of murder, felonious assault and having weapons under disability, as well as one count of tampering with evidence, in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court.
Last summer, an amendment to the state’s budget bill banned students in cities of a specific size — that only Dayton fell into — from transferring through a downtown bus hub with passes that the school district had bought.
The law effectively banned DPS students from using district-purchased bus passes to go through the downtown bus hub. Since most RTA buses go through the hub, DPS could no longer provide passes.
The district sued in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, and a judge has temporarily blocked the state law from taking effect. Currently, DPS is purchasing bus passes for its students.
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