Some Districts May Eliminate School Bus Rides

Like many working couples, Stephen and Gretchen Cheney struggled to afford a home in the pricey suburbs west of the San Fernando Valley that are served by the Las Virgenes Unified School District.

This last week, the Cheneys discovered that a new house and two incomes were not enough to get their children into a good school. They also needed a ride.

The Las Virgenes district--which serves communities such as Calabasas, Hidden Hills and Agoura--has doubled school bus fees this school year and cut the number of buses in half, leaving some areas with no service, even though the nearest school is several miles away.

Although parents there complain about paying a bus fee of $400 a year per child, the service may soon be out of reach at any price.

Las Virgenes is one of 21 school districts in the state appealing a court decision that has declared school bus fees unconstitutional. The districts in the suit--which include Arcadia Unified in Los Angeles County, as well as Saddleback Valley Unified and Irvine Unified in Orange County--have sued the state Department of Education to allow the fees.

If they lose, some of the districts involved in the lawsuit say they will eliminate bus service rather than make cuts in classroom programs. Most of the state’s 1,010 school districts, although not required to provide transportation, offer free bus service, state officials said.

Faced with shrinking state revenues and rising costs, school officials predict that may change.

Meantime, many parents in the Las Virgenes district who are on waiting lists for the limited bus service say they have tried everything short of hiring taxis to take their children to school.

“I finally begged some neighbors that I barely knew,” said Gretchen Cheney, a title insurance saleswoman who, along with her husband, leaves Westlake Village by 7 a.m. for the daily commute to an office in Los Angeles. “They are taking my daughter to and from school, and, in exchange, I promised to baby-sit at night.”

The increased number of parents driving their children to schools in the Las Virgenes district has created some traffic jams and required extra patrols, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officials said.

The Las Virgenes school board last spring considered eliminating all school bus service, which is provided by a private contractor, to keep from making other budget cuts, Assistant Supt. Donald Zimring said. But after several public hearings, the board agreed to split the costs with parents.

This year, the district will spend between $175,000 and $250,000 to provide bus service for about 1,400 children, Zimring said. Parent fees will fund the remaining $170,000 cost of the service. Last year, more than 2,200 students rode buses to school in the district.

Arcadia Unified School District Supt. Terry Towner said parents were not charged school bus fees this year because the district would have to refund the money if it loses the case. Officials from other districts in the suit, such as Las Virgenes, say they are putting the money collected for bus fees into a special account until a court decision is issued.

Priscilla Brown, an attorney representing the school districts, said she will try to persuade the 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento to uphold a long-standing state law allowing districts to charge for bus service. No date has been set for the hearing, but Brown expects it will be heard before the end of the year.

Brown said the fees do not violate the state Constitution’s guarantee of a free public school education because districts can waive the bus fees for families who cannot afford them.

Besides, said Brown, “transportation is not education. It is a supplementary service.”

So far, that argument has failed to persuade two judges. Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Michael J. Virga earlier this year ruled against the districts, declaring the fees unconstitutional.

In a separate case, Ventura County Superior Court Judge Joe Hadden in 1988 also ruled against the fees. Hadden ordered state Department of Education officials to stop districts from charging for bus transportation. Hadden’s ruling was upheld by the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles, but the state Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case, would not allow the appellate decision to serve as a legal precedent.

State Department of Education attorneys say it would be too costly to sue each district individually to enforce the ban. “We have this case in court so we’re hoping to win it and have it over,” said Deputy General Counsel Joanne Lowe.

Attorneys for the school districts say they are entitled to collect the bus fees while the case is on appeal.