EVIT agrees to cover $5 million cost to bus commuting East Valley students to its campus

After months of legal wrangling, the East Valley Institute of Technology and its member school districts have reached an agreement for transportation funding. EVIT has agreed to cover the $5 million cost to bus commuting students to its Mesa campus.

Many EVIT students attend classes at their home high schools for half the day, with the other half at EVIT. Last spring, member school districts announced they would not provide transportation for the upcoming school year due to funding disputes.

Queen Creek parent Jessica Snyder said although the parties came to an agreement, more work can be done for their students.

“I think short term it solves the problem, but I think there needs to be a lot more looked at the CTE programs offered in-house versus EVIT, because EVIT has a success rate that the homeschools and the school districts do not.” Snyder said.

Snyder’s daughter attends EVIT and said despite the agreement, many students still do not have reliable transportation.

"There's a lot of kids that are still on waitlists for transportation that can't get it, and I do believe that the school districts fighting this long and not and pulling transportation from the children was just to discourage them from attending EVIT.” Snyder said.

Snyder said the transportation issues forced some students in her Queen Creek community to drop the program. She said while her daughter was able to get transportation through a special education plan, many students in the community were placed on a waitlist.