Parents Protest School Bus Fee Before Ramona Trustees

A parent revolt against the Ramona Unified School District’s decision to charge students $150 apiece to ride the bus to school brought more than 75 protesters to the school board meeting Thursday night to demand reconsideration of the move.

Schools Supt. Don Haught said the issue could not be acted on at the session because it was not listed on the board agenda, but promised the angry parents he would listen to them and work with them on the fee schedule.

The board approved the bus fees in June, without a single protest by parents. But that was before San Diego Country Estates resident Connie Bull heard about the fees, on Aug. 6.

“It’s an illegal tax,” Bull charged. “We have already paid taxes. They have no right to charge us for something we are already paying for.”

Bull organized a communitywide protest that descended upon the school board Thursday night in an effort to force the board to reconsider.

“I’m a grandmother. I don’t have children in the Ramona district,” Bull said, “but I think that this is an unfair and illegal tax on Ramona residents.”

Bull presented the board members with more than 2,000 signatures on petitions against the busing fee. Assistant Schools Supt. Marge Dean defended the fee as “a practice by most communities, including Poway,” to defray the costs of operating weekday bus service. State school subsidies now pay for only about 37% of the school-busing costs and local taxpayer dollars make up the rest, Dean said.

Only about a third of Ramona’s nearly 6,000 students ride the bus, Dean explained, but the funds to operate the school bus system come from the general fund--property taxes paid by all district property owners.

Angry parents brushed aside the financial explanations and demanded that the school board call a special meeting to discuss and hopefully rescind the fee, which will cost families with three or more children a maximum of $420 annually. Parents can also purchase daily ride tickets at $1 per day.

The voice of the majority still reigns, said one angry parent, urging the board to listen to the group. He urged them to cut out the frills, cut the bureaucracy before imposing more financial burdens on Ramona parents. Several speakers warned of the safety hazard of forcing children to walk or ride their bicycles through the rural community, which has few sidewalks and crosswalks.

“I personally hold each of you personally liable for the safety of each of these children,” a mother told board members. Parents threatened to withhold their children from school, start recall petitions against the board members or seek legal redress if the board does not find some way to cut expenses so that the fees can be rescinded.

A Ramona fireman, who said he had to take other jobs to make ends meet, chided the school officials for adding to his financial woes. “I’m tired of everybody’s hands in my pocket,” he said, “and now you are reaching in there, too.”

The busing fees would raise about $250,000 a year, only a small percentage of the $1.6-million-dollar cost of operating the district’s bus fleet.

Bull said her whirlwind campaign has garnered more than 1,000 petition signers opposed to the bus fees, and added that many of the volunteer signature gatherers have yet to report.

“We hit the streets Aug. 19 and gathered signatures in high-traffic areas all over town,” Bull said. She estimated that 300 to 400 signatures were gathered daily.

Bull acknowledged that the Poway Unified School District has charged bus fees of $60 a year for several years and is increasing the charge to $90 a year this fall. But she noted that “many districts do not charge for school busing. Valley Center, for instance, which buses 97% of its students, does not charge parents a thing.”

She said the Ramona district covers “a very rural area where there is no alternative to school buses--no public transportation.”

Dean said she expects some parents to form car pools.