The Riverside Unified School District (RUSD) Board of Education last week received an initial report on the financial impact and increased community benefits of allowing more middle and high school students to ride the bus.
“I think this topic is a perfect example of how community engagement matters [as] they brought this attention to the board for us to address,” Trustee Dr. Jesse Tweed said at the September 25 meeting. “What I am seeing is a wonderful opportunity to provide significant relief to these affected communities.”
This discussion was the result of a request from Trustee Amanda Vickers, who asked for the report earlier this year after hearing from several constituents regarding the district’s busing program.
For more than a decade, RUSD has provided a busing option for students in grades seven through 12 who live more than 10 miles from their school.
The district has primarily been picking up students who attend Frank Augustus Miller Middle School, according to a staff presentation, with 128 of 155 eligible students using the service throughout the school year.
Samuel Precie, the district’s executive director of maintenance, operations, transportation and government relations, provided the board with a range of potential options for expanding the program along with their financial impacts. If the board were to decide to decrease the distance from 10 to six miles, some Arlington High School students and additional Miller Middle School students would become eligible for the program.
Stay up to date with the latest from The Record. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter today!
“Of those models, the two that make the most geographic sense, given the development layouts, are the eight-mile radius and six-mile radius, with the six-mile being the preferred of those two options,” Precie told the board. “The six-mile radius impacts Miller Middle School and Arlington High School, with an additional 46 students for Miller and 54 for Arlington.”
Precie said the current busing program costs $338,370 annually, of which 60% is reimbursed by the state. The remaining 40% is split between the district and the parents.
As part of the service, families pay $480 per student annually through the Parent Pay Program. According to Precie, the price is subject to annual increases, but the board has not increased the price since 2023. The Parent Pay Program also offers some exceptions, including the potential fee waiver for families who qualify for free or reduced meal programs.
“We have over a dozen families that had more than two students participating in the Parent Pay Program, and we have a handful of families that have three children that participate,” Precie said. “So if we were to raise it up to $909 [to cover the full 40%], it would be a significant burden for those families.”
Tweed and Trustee Vickers both expressed interest in considering lowering the eligibility requirement to the recommended six-mile radius if the item were brought back to the board in the future, though Trustee Dale Kinnear was more hesitant about the idea. He recalled that the 2010 decision to set the 10-mile distance was made to cut costs, which could again become necessary.
Board Vice President Noemi Hernandez Alexander, who also expressed interest in bringing the item back for discussion, also urged district staff to work with parents who needed an expanded busing option now on a case-by-case basis, allowing for potential immediate relief instead of making them wait for a potential future policy change.
“If we have an opportunity to provide a reprieve for these families right now, if we could do it administratively, that would be good,” she said. “If we can do it, let’s do it.”
The Riverside Record is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news outlet providing Riverside County with high-quality journalism free of charge. We’re able to do this because of the generous donations of supporters like you!