North Polk board approves $150 per‑semester fee for midday preschool bus service, 4‑1

The North Polk Community School District Board of Education voted 4‑1 at its May meeting to charge families $150 per semester for midday preschool transportation, a service the district is not required to provide under Iowa law.

Superintendent Michael Klein said the fee is intended to help offset the district’s costs and improve route safety and reliability. “My recommendation is that we attach a fee with the transportation because it’s not, again, not anything we are obligated to do,” Klein said during the discussion.

The fee is intended to fund one additional adult on midday runs so drivers have assistance loading and unloading preschoolers and to make routes more efficient. Marcy (Transportation Director) told the board the district currently operates three midday routes — west, central and a specialized route — for roughly 40 students and that the district estimates the service costs about $42,000 a year when labor, fuel and maintenance are included. “If we did charge a fee of a hundred and $50 per semester, it would easily pay for associates to help be on the buses, to help the bus routes go quicker, and to keep a little bit more order on those midday transportation routes,” Marcy said.

The board voted to: charge $150 per semester; waive the fee for families who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch; and exempt students who are served by an Individualized Education Program (IEP) that includes specialized transportation. The board directed staff to collect registrations and payments on a semester basis; staff said registrations can be added mid‑semester with at least 72 hours' notice and that a one‑week notice is preferable for planning. The board did not adopt a formal proration formula; staff said proration for students who move in mid‑term could be handled but would require additional administrative steps.

Trustees debated tradeoffs before the vote. One trustee described the $150 fee as a compromise between eliminating the service and keeping it fully district‑funded; another emphasized that the revenue is small in the context of the overall budget but could meaningfully fund an assistant on buses. A single “nay” vote was recorded; the meeting transcript does not identify the dissenting trustee by full name.

Implementation details remain to be finalized. The board asked staff to return with administrative steps for billing, eligibility verification for fee waivers, and guidance on how the district will assign any new associates funded by the fees. Staff also noted that the district will continue to recruit additional drivers for routes and activities.

The board’s action preserves midday preschool transportation while introducing a modest fee intended to improve safety and reduce the program’s net cost to the district.