Transportation issues spark new battle between East Valley school districts, EVIT

The nine East Valley school districts that were embroiled in a legal battle with the East Valley Institute of Technology are voicing concerns over how their students are being transported to the EVIT campuses.

In exchange for reducing “pass through” funding to career and technical education student satellite programs on various school campuses, EVIT agreed to foot the bill to transport students from schools to its main campuses in Mesa. Transportation had been a local district expense under past agreements.

Monday was the first day EVIT provided transportation.

In a letter sent to EVIT Superintendent Chad Wilson, the school districts allege that in the first week of providing transportation to students, EVIT has been using commercial rideshare services such as Uber and Lyft, and some students were being left stranded.

“Multiple students were transported using commercially available rideshare services, including Uber and Lyft,” the letter stated. “Publicly available information indicates that these services do not utilize Arizona fingerprint clearance requirements for their drivers. The Central Campus (intergovernmental agreement) requires EVIT to utilize transportation providers whose drivers meet specified safety standards, including comprehensive background investigations, fingerprint clearance, and applicable sex offender registry screening.”

According to the district letter, personnel from the districts alleged that not only were commercial rideshare services used, drivers arrived without identifiable credentials, could not communicate “effectively” with students or staff, were uncertain about student assignments or destinations, and operated “vehicles that raised concerns regarding safety and reliability.”

The letter was issued on behalf of the Queen Creek, Chandler, Gilbert, Higley, Cave Creek, Apache Junction, Fountain Hills, J.O. Combs and Tempe Union school districts.

In a statement, EVIT denied that it was using Uber and Lyft and added that “drivers assigned to EVIT routes are employees of the contracted transportation company.” The company is called Harbor Transportation.

EVIT also stated it acknowledged the terms of the IGA regarding transportation safety standards.

“As with any new transportation system, we anticipated there would be operational challenges during implementation,” according to the EVIT statement. “We have experienced some issues during the first week of service, including late arrivals, missed pickups and routing adjustments. While those challenges are not acceptable as a long-term standard, they are being addressed daily with our transportation provider, and we have already seen improvement.”

Last fall, the districts sued EVIT when the tech school announced it was reducing the percentage of state funds it doles out to the districts for satellite programs, citing a state audit as its rationale.

Under the new deal, EVIT funding to campuses has been reduced to 76%, but EVIT agreed to absorb up to $5 million in transportation costs to get students to its campuses.

The letter stated that the districts “repeatedly offered” to continue using their transportation systems to take their students to the central campuses “with EVIT reimbursing the districts for those transportation costs.”

“Our transportation departments already had the routes, personnel, infrastructure, and experience necessary to safely transport students on the first day of school,” the letter continued. “EVIT declined that offer and instead assumed responsibility for transporting students directly.”

EVIT denied that was the case.

“The nine member districts created this problem by suspending transportation services they had been providing for 30 years,” the EVIT statement read. “The districts then refused EVIT’s offer of $4 million to cover their costs. That left EVIT with no choice but to come up with its own transportation plan with no logistical assistance from the districts.

“Any suggestion that EVIT was unwilling to support student transportation does not reflect the actions we have taken or the significant resources we have committed to ensuring students could continue attending EVIT.”

Incidents reported by the districts include:

• Forty-seven students at J.O. Combs Unified School District were not picked up as scheduled
• Pickup delays approaching one hour occurred at multiple campuses
• Students at Higley Unified School District waited about 45 minutes before scheduled transportation failed to arrive
• Students returned to their district campuses later than scheduled, missing instructional time.

“This letter is not written to revisit past disagreements. It is written because all students deserve transportation that is safe, reliable, and predictable,” the district letter stated. “When that standard is not met, every one of us has an obligation to address it immediately.”

Janet Perez can be reached at jperez@iniusa.org. Please send your comments about this article to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.