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Seeded with funds from Arizona’s new transportation modernization grants, some public schools and nonprofits plan to try carpool apps, vans, electric buses or paid parent drivers to help students get to and from school, in lieu of or in addition to traditional yellow school buses.
A for Arizona’s Expansion and Innovation Fund administered the grant, which was funded by the Legislature and Gov. Doug Ducey’s office. A vetting committee sifted through 71 submissions and selected 24. In total, more than $18 million was awarded.
Emily Anne Gullickson, CEO and founder of A for Arizona, said the ideas from applicants were crafted based on their unique situations and might not have come about if left solely to lawmakers.
“I was really excited that the state Legislature gave them that runway to be able to come up with different approaches and to see community partners come to the table in a meaningful way that helped them deliver,” Gullickson said.
She said many of the applicants for the grants focused on micro-transit options. Some referenced the new classroom seat time flexibility law, which allows seat time to include project-based learning, independent learning, mastery-based learning and mixed remote and in-person instruction. Those alternatives don’t often fit in with a traditional school bus schedule, and Gullickson said they’re not truly accessible to students without a transportation option.
“How can we rethink and make sure that when we have evening courses, or when we have apprenticeship opportunities, or when we have access to this high-demand certification program that every child can get there?” she said. “Instead of just saying, ‘Well, all are invited to participate.’ But if we’re not providing transit solutions, then you can’t get there.”
One of the grant recipients, Arizona Autism Charter Schools, was awarded $2 million and plans to use the funds to launch a transportation program in partnership with Kid Connect, an organization that focuses on transportation for children with disabilities.
As the only public charter in the state that focuses on autism, Arizona Autism Charter Schools has students who travel up to 50 miles each way to attend, from as far east as Gilbert and as far west as Buckeye.
The charter has budgeted for 12 vans, which will each accommodate about 10 to 12 students and support staff, said Diana Diaz-Harrison, Arizona Autism Charter Schools founder and executive director.
Before, the initial cost of starting a transportation program was daunting.
“Transportation for special needs children is very, very expensive,” Diaz-Harrison said. “If it weren’t for this grant, we probably could not start a formal transportation program that spans such a wide distance across Maricopa County.”
Black Mothers Forum, awarded $100,000, also faces the challenge of transporting students from across the Valley, though it’s looking into paying parents to carpool as a solution.
The Forum will use the funds to develop its SAFE Driver Program app, which will connect students to carpools to help them get to and from its micro-schools. Black Mothers Forum and its partner Prenda run extended-day, tuition-free public micro-schools for students from kindergarten to eighth grade, but the commute is lengthy for some students.
Founder Janelle Wood said she wants the carpools to be a safe transportation option that has a family-type atmosphere.
“There’s a growing need for parents of color, communities of color, to have access to learning environments that make their children feel safer and more supported,” Wood said. “If you’re a parent who doesn’t have a car, if you’re a parent who works a certain hour and you can’t get off to pick your child up, right now you’re being blocked – your children are not able to come to the micro-schools.”
Crane Elementary School District in Yuma County will use some of its grant money to develop an app as well. The app will update parents on bus delays, arrival times and route changes. The rural district will also use its $1.5 million grant to purchase three new electric buses, a charging station and a new hybrid van.
While electric buses have a much higher price tag than traditional school buses – around $450,000 compared to $150,000 – they save money in the long run, district Superintendent Laurie Doering said.
One of the three new electric buses will pick up students from the nearby military base. Doering said that bus route had to be cut last year due to not having enough bus drivers. She said the district is now fully staffed.
Doering said the new van will be used to transport homeless students.
“We want to be able to keep them in the school that they last attended if that’s what they prefer,” Doering said. “Now, they may prefer to go to something closer to where they are, but if they prefer to go to that school, we want to be able to keep that consistency in their lives.”
In northern Arizona, Chinle Unified School District will use its $2 million grant to address some of the unique challenges that come with operating a rural school district that covers 4,200 square miles on the Navajo Nation.
One of its planned purchases – a second four-wheel-drive tow truck to pull buses out when inclement weather turns the unimproved roads that make up about 60% the bus routes to mud.
Chinle Unified Superintendent Quincy Natay said rough road conditions and lengthy routes shorten the lifespan of the district’s fleets – it replaces about 10 buses a year. Three new electric buses will first be deployed on local routes where there are more paved roads. Natay said the district will test them on longer routes and on muddy roads.
The district is also using grant money to recruit and retain more bus drivers. Fifteen of the 60 driver positions are vacant, Natay said. The district will now pay drivers during commercial driver’s license training and pay their commercial driver’s license fees. It will also offer retention and recruitment stipends.
To fill the current gaps left from the driver vacancies, the district will start reimbursing parents for mileage of taking their children to and from school.
Natay said he hoped the new buses will get students excited, too, about renewable energy.
“I think it’s going to be something that they’ll be talking about in the classroom,” he said.
In addition to public schools and nonprofits, the city of Chandler also received a $2 million grant. The city works with Valley Metro to provide bus services that students use. It will use the grant to offer a van service from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. to transport students who participate in after-school activities and whose needs aren’t met by school buses or mass transit.
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