FAIRFIELD, Ohio — A long-running Lakota Local Schools bus route serving students attending Cincinnati Christian School and other area private schools has been deemed impractical, setting off a dispute between the district and families who say the decision was made without an accurate picture of transportation demand.
In a 4-1 vote, the Lakota Board of Education approved declaring transportation to several nonpublic schools impractical for the 2026-27 school year. Families affected by the decision are being offered a payment in lieu of transportation, though the district has not disclosed the amount.
WATCH: Lakota parents say a change in the bus sign-up process left families without transportation, but the district says the route was impractical
Lakota officials say the decision was based on state guidelines that require districts to consider factors including ride time, distance, cost, the number of students served, the impact on existing bus routes and whether families have other transportation options.
According to the district, this year, there were 44 transportation requests from Cincinnati Christian School families. Those students are spread across 18 different attendance areas, making it difficult to create a single bus route.
"Our transportation department evaluated the requests using the criteria outlined in Ohio law," the district said in a statement to WCPO.
Parents who spoke during last week's school board meeting said the loss of transportation will have a significant impact on their families.
"There is one thing that makes living in this area feasible for us, and that's busing to the school that best serves my students' learning needs," one parent told the board.
Several parents said district transportation was one of the reasons they chose to live within Lakota's boundaries. Others said busing is the only public school service they use despite paying local taxes.
The dispute centers on changes to the district's transportation registration process.
Parents say Lakota switched from paper transportation forms to an online registration system this year and believe more families would have requested transportation if they had known about the change.
Lakota says its transportation contractor, Petermann, notified private schools about the new online registration process.
However, Cincinnati Christian School Superintendent Ray Kochis said Petermann's email to his school was sent to an elementary principal who retired five years ago.
"I believe that emails were sent to nonpublic schools, and one was sent to Cincinnati Christian Schools, but it was to an elementary principal that has not worked here in five years," Kochis told WCPO.
Kochis said he believes the email would have bounced back to Petermann and that the school never became aware of the change to the transportation registration process.
In a written statement, Petermann said they contacted the school and never received a bounce-back email.
We can confirm that we sent out an email communication to Cincinnati Christian School based on our distribution list and did not receive a bounce back stating that there was an invalid email address. Further, we received the first application from families of Cincinnati Christian School in mid-May.
Families who reject Lakota's payment in lieu of transportation are now entering mediation with the district.
Under Ohio law, districts must continue providing transportation while mediation over an impracticality determination is pending.
When WCPO asked whether Lakota would continue providing transportation during that process, the district responded, "We are currently considering all options while the appeal is pending."
The mediation process will determine whether the district's impracticality determination stands or whether transportation service will resume.
