DAYTON — Greater Dayton RTA’s CEO is responding the morning after Dayton Public Schools called their desire to not bus students “unacceptable” and “disappointing.”
CEO Bob Ruzinsky told News Center 7 Tuesday morning the he was “certainly disappointed” by the district’s press conference Monday night where the Board of Education criticized RTA for not wanting to bus students on public routes.
“We’ve been working throughout the community and in telling this story for a while that we don’t think it’s appropriate for the kids to be on our buses,” Ruzinsky said. “It’s just not the best fit.”
School Board President Chrisondra Goodwine said Monday that the move by RTA to not allow students on their busses, “directly impacts the ability of students to receive a free and equitable public education.”
“RTA’s attempts to find ways to prevent students from being able to use their transportation is unacceptable,” she said.
Ruzinsky responded to that comment, as well as board member Joseph Lacey accusing RTA of violating civil rights for not wanting to transport students, saying that that they would never not allow students, or anyone, to take the bus, as long as they’re able to pay the fare.
“We just don’t think it’s the best way for an organization to handle their responsibility, which is to transport students, [and] to push it onto the public transit system,” he said.
In the past, RTA transported students under a contract with the Board of Education. RTA had point-to-point routes for special buses that students would ride. Ruzinsky said the district cancelled that contract after a year and decided to buy passes to put students back on the normal buses.
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“They simply chose, without our consultation or talking with us, to just put their kids on our buses this year,” he said.
Goodwine said the district currently purchases thousands of bus passes each month to provide transportation to high school students. Ruzinsky said they buy anywhere between 3,000 and 3,500 passes.
“For that they’re probably spending $3 million a year,” Ruzinsky said, noting it was a big cost difference.
Goodwine said Monday that the district offered security and school resources officers at the RTA hubs Monday through Friday to help mitigate any incidents caused by the influx of students at the hubs.
While they have been doing it most days since they started putting kids on the buses, they aren’t always there to help.
“When they’re here, that’s very helpful. When they’re not, it’s not helpful,” Ruzinsky said.
Superintendent Elizabeth Lolli said Monday that the district is “trying to not use RTA next year, but we don’t have any solutions at this point in time.”
David Lawrence, business manager for this district, said they are still working on a preliminary plan for next year which would include seeing if they could find additional busses if needed in the case RTA is not used.
“We are committed to making sure that our students have equitable access to school. If that means that our RTA needs to be bussing them, we need to work out a plan together to do that,” Lolli said.
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