“Through the district’s diligent fiscal responsibility over the years, we are now in a better position to offer busing to our freshman students beginning in the fall,” said Shaffer.
The new transportation plan will create 34 new bus routes for Lakota East and Lakota West Freshman School students starting in August 2020.
The additional, annual transportation cost will be $1,870,994 for all Lakota freshman for the 2020-2021 school year, said district officials.
Under Ohio law, public school districts must also provide busing for students attending non-public schools within a 30-minute drive.
Lakota officials projected this will mean operating an additional 15 bus routes to seven area, non-public schools at an annual cost of $825,439 during next school year.
The total transportation cost increase for 2020-2021 school year will be about $2.7 million, said school officials.
Lakota, which enrolls 16,500 students and is the largest district in Butler County, has an annual operating budget of $177 million.
The 22-school district currently spends more than $12 million on busing about 10,000 students in grades kindergarten through 8th grade.
Ohio requires public school systems to provide busing for K-8 students, leaving the provision of any further busing up to individual districts.
Lakota officials also considered options to restore busing for grades 10, 11, 12 but did not.
The meeting included a prolonged discussion among the board – including members Lynda O’Connor and Todd Parnell expressing concerns about the cost of busing in the district’s projected budget deficit forecast to reach a total of $7.5 million by 2024.
In response to those financial concerns, Lakota Treasurer Jenni Logan proposed the district leadership would come to the board later with a plan to address an initial, projected budget deficit of more than $1 million scheduled to begin in 2022.
Lakota Superintendent Matt Miller said “this is a complex issue and I appreciate the board’s thorough attention to the details presented throughout this process.”
“I am pleased that our fiscal responsibility has enabled Lakota’s board to be in a position to approve busing for freshman students,” said Miller. “Our parents have asked for transportation to be restored for many years and now we are able to deliver.”
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