County Issue / Transportation Fees for...

Sarah Hart, Assistant superintendent, Conejo Valley Unified School District

The Conejo Valley Unified School District has collected a bus transportation fee for extracurricular activities since 1978, and therefore, we’ve been able to have full athletic and extracurricular programs. The district has carefully reviewed throughout the years the legality of the fee. We’ve received several legal opinions in the past, including two recent legal opinions, that support the legality of the fee. There is currently a case before the state Supreme Court addressing home-to-school transportation fees, and we, like many districts, are carefully watching for the outcome of that case, which would affect our decision on extracurricular transportation fees. If the Supreme Court rules in favor of home-to-school fees, it would strengthen our position. We’ve made $3.9 million in budget cuts for 1991-92, and to force the district to provide free transportation for extracurricular activities would cost approximately $170,000 this year. These funds would have to be paid at the expense of daily instruction programs.

Vincent Ruiz, President, Ventura school board

I don’t want to have to charge transportation fees for any activity that is approved by the school district, but right now, because of the financial conditions and the less money we have been getting for the schoolchildren, we are forced to charge those fees. It’s one of the things that has become necessary. I don’t know whether it’s constitutional or unconstitutional. The one thing we try not to do away with is bus service. If things continue financially the way they are and if school districts don’t get money, what you have to look at is where the priorities are. The priorities are in the classroom. Anything else is extra. If people will look at the number of buses in the Ventura Unified School District, they will see it takes a lot of money to maintain them. At the present time, the budget consists of teachers in the classrooms, maintenance of buildings and supplies. That’s about all we have.

Jamie Grossman, Student body president, Westlake High School

I have very mixed feelings about the transportation fees. I am a cheerleader at Westlake High School, and I pay a $73.50 transportation fee a year. I get to take a bus to sports activities. I feel that, if we don’t get bused to championship games, I could get in my own car and go myself, because normally the games aren’t very far. Sometimes, I don’t feel I’m getting my money’s worth. But I would rather pay the $73.50 and be guaranteed a bus than have to worry about getting to a game. If the district doesn’t take care of it and provide the buses, each of the booster clubs would want to do it their own way, and it would be chaotic. If they have to cut back on education expenses so we don’t have to pay a transportation fee, then I don’t think it’s worth eliminating the fee. At this rate, some of my classes are crowded, and some classes aren’t available. I don’t think we can afford them to take any more away from our education.

Carol Adams, President, Moorpark High School Band Boosters

The transportation fee was originally $100, and they now lowered it to $50. It’s difficult for parents to come up with the $50. Most of the students have another fee on top of that, such as for football, band or softball. The band fee covers purchasing a shirt, gloves and shoes. Because of the transportation fee, we had to lower the band fee, which means we have to do twice the amount of fund-raising. We use the money to buy new instruments and uniforms and to feed band members when we go out. We have to come up with the money somewhere. I think if the transportation fee continues and goes higher, you’re going to lose students, because they can’t afford it. And if a parent has two students, the fee becomes astronomical. If they are involved in more than one activity, they have to pay more. It’s a hardship on the students and the parents. It’s a real shame. They’re crying for kids to be in band, sports and drama, but if the fee continues, you’re going to lose students.

Ken Ashton, Simi Valley school board member

There is absolutely no question there is a need for the fees. The problem is, we’ve been advised by legal counsel not to charge them, and that’s why our district rescinded them. My feeling is that, when the state Supreme Court says it’s not legal, I struggle with collecting the fees. Our board will have to take a look at what we do with it. We were collecting $90,000 a year, and you can’t take $90,000 out of the general fund because it is allocated to other programs. If they say you can’t have these fees, do you cut the extracurricular transportation out? If you have 3,000 kids participating in extracurricular activities, is it fair to allocate that much money on them? I don’t know the answer to that yet. I feel that extracurricular activities have benefits. It has to be placed in context of what is good for the entire student population. It’s going to be an extremely difficult task to determine. If we had not had the advice of legal counsel that we ought to rescind the fee, we probably would not have done it.