Dayton Public Schools Board of Education member Jocelyn Rhynard told this outlet that the law would likely render the district’s current bussing solution for high school students unworkable.
“We don’t put them on yellow buses now, we don’t have the fleet or the drivers. What we’ve been doing for the past couple years is buying the monthly bus passes for them,” Rhynard said. “But if they cannot go through the RTA hub, then buying them the bus passes would be pointless. So, we would have to tell our students that they would be on their own because of the decisions made at the Statehouse.”
Other options are still on the table, Rhynard said. DPS could expand its yellow bus fleet (the district estimates needing about 70 additional buses and 70 additional drivers). A satellite RTA transfer hub for students is also a theoretical option. But, Rhynard said the law, which would go into effect for the coming school year, offers the district little time to come up with a solution.
“We possibly will not be doing high school transportation for Dayton students or nonpublic students,” Rhynard said. “We haven’t had the meeting to discuss that, there’s a lot we have to finalize and figure out, but at this point the Statehouse might have made the decision for us.”
The provision is backed by local Rep. Phil Plummer, R-Butler Twp., who has been supported in his attempts to distance high school students from the downtown hub by Dayton Mayor Jeffrey Mims, a Democrat, and the Dayton chapter of the NAACP.
The issue became an even greater priority following the April killing of Alfred Hale III, an 18-year-old Dunbar High School student who was shot near the downtown RTA hub on his way to school.
“They could do this. I don’t want to hear their excuses,” Plummer, a former Montgomery County sheriff, told this outlet. “Here’s the main thing: We had a kid killed down there. It’s a terrible environment. I would not want my 13-year-old daughter standing down there waiting to transfer buses in that climate.
Credit: Bryant Billing
Credit: Bryant Billing
“You know, you have drug dealing going on down there, you’ve got gangs down there, you’ve got homeless, mental health people down there. It’s not a place for a 13-year-old kid.”
Plummer admits that his provision doesn’t offer the district much time to adjust. He wanted to provide a one-year runway, but that version of his amendment wasn’t the one that made its way into the state budget.
The provision, like all of the state budget, is still subject to review from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who wields line-item veto power and is expected to sign the budget early next week.
School transportation is made more complicated by an Ohio law that saddles public districts with the responsibility of transporting both public and non-public students up through eighth grade, which has caused headaches particularly in districts like DPS — large, urban, open-enrollment districts with charter schools and private schools aplenty.
Districts have more leeway for high school students, but they must offer the same transportation solutions to public and non-public high schoolers alike.
“The biggest issue here, that it seems like nobody in the Statehouse is willing to acknowledge, is that we are able to transport all of our students, K-12, on yellow buses if we did not have to transport non-public students,” Rhynard told this outlet. “If we did not have the mandate, we would be able to do the transportation in house for all of our Dayton Public students. But because we have to transport all of the nonpublic students, we can only transport through eighth grade.”
Rhynard said lawmakers were looking at the wrong solutions with this provision.
“If our legislators in the Statehouse actually wanted to solve this transportation issue, they would get rid of the mandate that we transport non public students,” she said. “There’s no reason why we should be doing transportation for students who do not attend Dayton public schools.”
To this outlet, Plummer said that the transportation requirements hoisted upon public schools “need revisited.” He said the current law made more sense before the rise of charter and private schools, noting that about half of the students DPS transport on their yellow buses are non-public students.
“It is an antiquated system that needs changed. But, they need to ask themselves why 50% of our kids go to other schools,” Plummer said. “Maybe start there.”
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Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below.
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