Iowa City school board votes to stop busing Regina students

Iowa City Regina will be responsible for making arrangements for getting its students to school next school year.

The Iowa City school board voted 6-1 last night to reaffirm a decision it made last spring to stop providing busing to students of the private K-12 school. Sarah Swisher cast the dissenting vote

The decision was a great disappointment to the more than 40 Regina parents and officials at the meeting.

“Our community has imploded over this,” Regina President Carol Trueg said.

But board members said they have heard from many Iowa City school board parents who support ending the busing arrangement. The district, which is facing at least $1.4 million in budget cuts for next year, estimates the switch will save $260,000 annually.

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“We as a school district have some serious, serious financial issues,” board member Mike Cooper said.

Public districts in Iowa must provide transportation to non-public students in their boundaries. Alternatives include reimbursing families with state funds for transportation costs, or sending to Regina the state transportation dollars the district gets and then Regina can arrange its own busing.

Either of those two would be revenue neutral for Iowa City, Superintendent Lane Plugge said, and administrators from each school system will now work on which one to pursue.

Regina officials said they didn't believe all options were fully explored, complained of alleged misinformation and the Rev. Rudolph Juarez wondered aloud if an “anti-Catholic bias” was at play.

Board members and school officials refuted those charges. Plugge said he looked into possible compromises, such as reducing the number of pickup spots and having more transfers to reduce the number of buses, but those would threaten state-required distance and time requirements.

“Certainly I care about what happens to all children in this community, but my fiduciary duty” is with the Iowa City school district, Plugge said.