Ramona Schools Drop Bus Fee for Now

Ramona school officials have been ordered to drop a new pay-to-ride policy for school buses, temporarily ending a skirmish between parents and the district in which some students allegedly were left stranded miles from home.

El Cajon Superior Court Judge Robert A. May issued a temporary restraining order against the Ramona Unified School District prohibiting enforcement of the bus fee policy on Monday and repeated his order Wednesday after another incident occurred.

A group of angry parents filed suit Oct. 18 against the district, individual school board members and two school officials, challenging the new bus fees, the manner in which the board imposed them and the way in which the district had “haphazardly” enforced the collection.

Parent Walter Fetgatter said the lawsuit “is not about money. It’s about fairness. The kids are the ones who are being hurt.”

Fetgatter has refused to buy the $90-a-year passes for his 11-year-old twin sons who attend Olive Pierce Junior High School, which is nearly 6 miles from their San Diego Country Estates home.

Fetgatter said that youngsters who could not display passes to bus drivers sometimes were left at school and forced to wait, unsupervised, until a parent or neighbor could pick them up.

Fetgatter’s sons are among 176 students in the Ramona school district who have been assigned to a school outside their neighborhood attendance area because of crowding in elementary schools. The twin sixth-graders live within walking distance of James Dukes Elementary School.

Lawrence Duignan, attorney for the parents suing the district, said students had been subjected to embarrassment and harassment because they did not have a bus pass or the funds to pay a daily fare.

Some students have been left without supervision on school grounds, some have been evicted from school buses before reaching their destination, and others have been placed in detention classes at school, Duignan said.

After the judge issued a temporary restraining order Monday, Duignan said one student was “left out in the middle of the tules” by a bus driver “and forced to walk 6 1/2 miles home.”

School Supt. Don Haught said bus fees were imposed to help balance the district’s budget, shifting the cost of operating the 27-bus fleet to the families who use the system.

Before the school board’s action, busing was covered by tax funds paid by all property owners in the school district.

Parents protested that the district didn’t inform them that the school board was considering a transportation fee. They said budget cuts should be made in other areas.

Assistant Supt. Judy Endeman said 2,000 students ride district buses, and only about a dozen had not purchased bus passes or daily bus tickets.

The board adopted the busing fee in June without opposition, Endeman said. After parents protested, the board in September reduced the fees from $150 to $90 a year.

Fetgatter said several bulletins had been issued by the district with contradictory instructions about the bus fees.

Initially, students were told they would be allowed to ride to and from school without charge. They were later informed that they would be given detention or suspension for not having a bus pass after three warnings. Finally, they were told they would be bused to school but would not be transported home without a pass. None of the edicts was carried out routinely, the lawsuit charged.

A bulletin issued Wednesday said the bus fee had been suspended, that money paid for bus passes and tickets would be held in a special fund, and that all students would be allowed to ride free until the Nov. 12 hearing on the lawsuit.

Since school started in fall, Fetgatter said, some students have been allowed on buses without passes while others have been left at school grounds, disciplined or ridiculed when they could not produce a pass or ticket.

“This is between the school district and the parents, but it is the children who are being punished,” Fetgatter said.

“The whole thing is inconsistent and unfair to the children,” he added.

“We have already paid (school) taxes for bus service, and we are tired of paying more for everything they ask,” Fetgatter said.

A second order from Judge May was issued Wednesday after at least one student was stranded by a bus driver, in violation of the restraining order issued Monday, said Duignan, the parent’s lawyer.

School official Endeman said the district has “followed procedures appropriately, although there may have been some glitches.”

She said the busing fees were adopted last June “in order to have the summer to implement them properly.”

Parent protests caused school officials to reduce the fee and delay start of the program, she said.

Duignan said a case challenging school bus fees imposed by the Arcadia Unified School District will be reviewed in coming months by the California Supreme Court.