Iowa City School Board members waver on eliminating discretionary busing

IOWA CITY - During their work session Tuesday night, school board members said they won't use a blanket approach to cutting back on busing but rather want to see information from the Metropolitan Planning Organization of Johnson County and school administrators on what routes could be safely eliminated.

The Iowa City Community School District is required by Iowa law to provide busing for students who live more than two miles from their elementary school and three miles from their high school. All other busing is at the discretion of the district and competes with other expenditures for money from the district's general fund.

At its last meeting, the board received a recommendation to consider eliminating discretionary busing as a cost-saving measure.

Patti Fields said in the 10 years she's been on the school board, bus routes have been added or eliminated on a case-by-case basis. This is the first time they've looked at it holistically.

'I think what I'm hearing is the board is willing to look at discretionary busing in review (and) that we are still prioritizing safety as well as other educational barriers,” she said.

Traditionally, discretionary busing is offered because of safety concerns for students walking to school, including a lack of sidewalks or crosswalks and high traffic volume. But another issue discussed Tuesday was some families' inability to drive children to school.

'At the end of the day we want them in the classroom,” board member Tuyet Dorau said.

Board members also acknowledged that while some routes may be safe enough to eliminate, others deemed safe in the past now may be unsafe for students walking to school.

'Doing something just because that's the way it's always been done is never a good excuse for doing it,” board member Brian Kirschling said.

In the past several years, the district has removed discretionary busing from a number of school areas including Coralville Central, Garner, Lemme, Penn, Van Allen, Wood, and North Central.

In the 2013-14 academic year, the district spent about $848,900 on discretionary busing.

'When the recommendation came from the superintendent at the last meeting, the rationale was to focus as many resources on teaching and learning and in the classroom as possible,” Fields said.