EVIT to Offset Transportation Costs Amid Ongoing Funding Dispute
The East Valley Institute of Technology (EVIT) has stepped up to help mitigate transportation expenses for students coming from neighboring school districts. This decision emerges in the backdrop of a legal dispute over funding allocations between EVIT and the districts.
EVIT, a publicly funded trade school, collaborates with these districts to provide high school students with career and technical education courses. However, the financial burden of transportation has become a point of contention. EVIT Superintendent Chad Wilson announced that the school would allocate $2 million to help cover these costs.
“That cost from the member districts was roughly $4 million. And so we offered to pay half that cost so that those students can have the opportunity that they were committed to being given last fall,” Wilson explained.
The agreement from EVIT to share the transportation costs comes after the districts announced plans to cease their transportation services for the next academic year. Consequently, EVIT has decided to put its main campus renovation projects on hold to accommodate this financial commitment.
Wilson expressed concerns over the potential impact on families, stating, “To not provide transportation will clearly hurt families that don’t have the means to be able to get the transportation on their own, right?”
In a related statement, the Chandler Unified School District highlighted that funding transportation to EVIT’s program detracts from resources meant for classrooms and teacher staffing.
