Columbus City Schools considers cuts to busing, seeks to avoid fines

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- As Columbus City Schools works to cut $50 million annually from its budget, the district is weighing major transportation changes.

“I think we would all agree that the state’s not coming to save us,” Treasurer Ryan Cook said. “And now the feds aren’t helping. I think we have to begin to attack it with urgency."

At Tuesday's Board of Education meeting, Cook offered an updated financial forecast, which now projects positive cash balances into fiscal year 2030, one year later than previously projected. However, Cook said the district still needs to cut $50 million annually from the budget, and should brace for additional cuts in the future.

Although Superintendent Angela Chapman won't present her recommendations until November, the district is already considering major changes to transportation. On Sept. 11, the district mulled giving all high school students Central Ohio Transit Authority passes or doing away with high school transportation entirely. The state only requires public districts to transport students through eighth grade.

Giving COTA passes to high schoolers would allow them to take public transportation instead of relying on school busing. The district said it would save an estimated $4.7 million annually and remove the need for 50 buses. Cutting high school transportation entirely would save the district $7.2 million annually but would place the burden of transportation onto families.

The district said either option would also help Columbus City Schools save money in noncompliance fines. Ohio public schools are required to provide transportation for students who live within district boundaries and go to charter schools. Rodney Stufflebean, executive director of transportation, explained to school board members in August that the state fines public districts that receive transportation complaints from nonpublic schools.

After a fifth complaint from nonpublic schools, CCS must pay $161,000 per day for violations. However, there is no timeline for when nonpublic schools have to file complaints. Stufflebean said in April, nonpublic schools filed numerous complaints from the previous August, so CCS was unable to address the issues and avoid the fines.

Stufflebean said the district spends $77 million each year on transportation, but noncompliance fines raise costs over $100 million. He said the district had successfully reduced its fees from $22 million to $1.4 million before it was hit with new fines in April, driving the fees back up to $15 million.

Shufflebean said although the district gets a reimbursement for all nonpublic students it transports, the cost to transport nonpublic students exceeds state funding allotments. Chapman said many Ohio districts have shifted to the state minimum of who they need to transport, something she said CCS has not done. She said after the pandemic, CCS continued to operate transportation as it had before COVID-19, despite having 200 fewer bus drivers.

Cook said providing COTA transportation to high schoolers would reduce the chance for fines, and removing high school transportation would eliminate 9-12 noncompliance fines entirely. Cook said the district does not budget for fines, so they always represent a direct revenue loss.

Although removing transportation would save the most money, board members recognized the responsibility that placed on families. As part of the Tuesday meeting the board discussed their recent state report card and areas for improvement. The report card placed the district's chronic absentee rate at 52.6%, which is unlikely to be bettered by placing the responsibility of getting to school on families.