Charter operator seeks relief from $1,000 per‑student transportation charge; board asks for family survey and detailed plan

Angelica Jackson, co‑founder and CEO of Phoenix International School of the Arts (referred to in the meeting as "Sota" or "Soda"), asked the Board on March 10 to amend the school's charter language that currently requires the operator to purchase transportation at $1,000 per enrolled student regardless of ridership.

"We are requesting that we only pay for those students that actually take the bus," Jackson told the board, adding that roughly 30–40% of her school's families are car riders and that the mandated buyback at $1,000 per enrolled child imposes a heavy fixed cost on a small charter operator. She proposed paying a reduced rate (the district's per‑pupil transportation allotment is about $550–584 per student in recent years) and asked for flexibility in the charter so the operator could suspend district service if it threatened the school's viability.

Superintendent Maria Navarro and transportation staff described the cost calculus. Navarro said district projections put transportation cost at roughly $1,755 per pupil; the charter's current payment level would cover about $248,000 if Sota has 248 students, while an estimate of the charter's total transportation cost as currently structured was roughly $573,000 — leaving an approximate subsidy of about $325,000 absorbed by the district under present arrangements.

"We can go back and forth and discuss this," Navarro said, while recommending the district administer a detailed family survey (the superintendent proposed an 80% response target) and asking the charter operator to return a fully worked plan showing how many riders they would need by zone and the financial consequences before the board approves any contract language change. Navarro said the district must also protect mandated special‑education transportation tied to IEPs.

Board members across party lines and perspectives emphasized two consistent requirements before altering charter language: (1) a comprehensive survey of current families and students on the waitlist to determine whether transportation is a determining factor in enrollment, and (2) a firm operational plan and timeline so the district can model costs and run an implementation simulation (how many buses, stops, driver requirements and deadlines). Several board members suggested the Office of Accountability run the survey using the district's Qualtrics account to ensure representative and confidential results.

The board gave the operator marching orders: provide survey questions and allow the district to field an administrator‑run Qualtrics survey, with results to be returned no later than the March work session if feasible or the April board meeting at the latest. The board did not vote on a charter amendment at the meeting.