by April Corbin Girnus, Nevada Current
The State Public Charter School Authority’s distribution of $7 million in transportation funding got off to a modest start last week, with just three charters requesting a combined $286,000 to fund bus service for the upcoming academic year.
SPCSA Executive Director Rebecca Feiden told the Charter School Board on Friday that “many more” applications are expected to be submitted for approval in the upcoming months.
Up to $7 million in dedicated funds for charter school transportation is available for the 2023-24 school year, which begins this month. An additional $7 million will be available for the 2024-25 school year. The money was set aside for charter schools through Assembly Bill 400, a heavily negotiated omnibus education bill sponsored by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo during this year’s legislative session.
All three schools that were awarded money — Futuro Academy, Southern Nevada Trades High School, and Young Women’s Leadership Academy — are in Southern Nevada and serve primarily low-income students. All three will be contracting with the same bus company for service.
Futuro Academy received approval for $216,000 to offer three bus routes serving students living within a 4-mile radius of their campus at Lamb Boulevard and Washington Avenue on the eastside of Las Vegas. The money will also be used to purchase 150 30-day transit passes from the RTC of Southern Nevada for students living beyond the bus route.
In its application, the elementary school noted that transportation is the most common reason cited for withdrawal from the charter school and that the school suffers from “abnormally high chronic absenteeism.” Approximately 1 in 3 students is at academic risk due to absenteeism.
“We believe anywhere between 15-40% of our students would benefit from centralized transportation to improve their on-time attendance rate and their average daily attendance,” the application continued.
Futuro on Friday also received approval from the charter school board to reduce its enrollment cap from 522 students to 450 students. In documents submitted to authority, the school said downsizing will allow them to reduce class sizes and improve student and employee satisfaction.
The school said the boost in the per-pupil base funding set by the state allows them to make the adjustment.
Futuro expects normal attrition will get the school down to 450 students, meaning no current students will be kicked out because of the enrollment reduction.
Charter schools were limited by statute to receiving the average per pupil cost for transportation in the school district in which the charter school is located. For Clark County, where all three of the charter schools awarded transportation money are located, that number is $481 per student.
Young Women’s Leadership Academy, which opened last year, was approved for $45,328 in transportation funding — the maximum amount allowable based on its current enrollment.
The estimated cost of YWLA’s transportation plan is $66,000, according to application documents. Sand Cares, the philanthropic foundation for Las Vegas Sands Corp, will provide the additional funding needed. The resort company and its philanthropic arm helped establish the charter school, which last school year enrolled sixth and ninth graders and this school year will expand to seventh and tenth graders.
YWLA is expected to offer one bus route with stops between one and four miles from its eastside campus on Mojave Road near Desert Inn Road.
According to a survey conducted by the school and referenced in its application, an overwhelming majority of YWLA families said they were interested in a bus route. Almost three-fourths of students currently rely on a parent or guardian to get to and from school.
YWLA in its application said the availability of bus service is expected to help with student recruitment as the school expands.
Southern Nevada Trades High School, a new charter school opening next week, was approved for $25,012 in funding — the maximum allowed based on current estimated enrollment.
Like at YWLA, the estimated cost of SNTHS’s transportation plan is $66,000. The trade school expects to return to the Charter School Board to ask for additional money once enrollment is higher, since it will qualify for a higher amount. Administrators said they believe offering a bus will boost their enrollment numbers.
“In our community outreach, we regularly speak with families who would enroll at SNTHS but don’t have access to reliable transportation,” reads the application for funding.
SNTHS is also actively seeking additional sources of funding.
Futuro, YWLA and SNTHS all indicated in application materials that they will be contracting bus service out to Bright Yellow Lines. According to state business filings, Bright Yellow Lines is a Henderson-based company founded last month. David Blodgett is listed as the company’s registered agent.
Blodgett is the principal of Nevada Prep Academy, the only charter school in Nevada that offers daily bus transportation comparable to traditional districts.
Nevada Prep and the three new schools seeking to offer daily transportation are located within seven miles of one another.
At Friday’s Charter School Board meeting, there was little discussion on the schools’ specific plans, but board member Tamika Shauntee Rosales expressed her excitement over the opportunity to fund daily transportation, which she said will make schools more accessible and more diverse, and help low-income families that may not have consistent transportation themselves.
“To sit here and see it come to fruition,” she said. “I feel so whole. It’s been a long road.”
The Charter School Board’s next scheduled meeting is Aug. 25.
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