OAKLAND — The AC Transit Board of Directors voted Wednesday night to hold a community meeting about proposed elimination of service to Skyline High School, Montera Middle School and Community Day School, paid for by the Oakland Unified School District since 1997.

The decision came after more than 40 parents, students and neighbors surrounding the schools complained that the cuts would adversely affect lower-income students, create hassles for parents and jam up traffic around the schools. Each speaker was met with applause and some cried while explaining why the routes were so important.

“There would be no way for me or my friends to get to school,” seventh-grader Montera Middle School student Siena Killpatrick said to the board during the public comments.

Killpatrick is like many students who go to Montera and Skyline. She commutes to the schools and her parents are not available to give her rides every day. She could get rides from friends’ parents, but that would require constant juggling.

“It’s just really, really hard for anyone to give anyone else rides,” she said. “And with so many cars going to the school, it would be practically impossible to get there.”

Speakers packed the meeting room. A petition objecting to the route cuts received more than 1,200 signatures.

One by one, parents like Sharon Weinberg told the board that the bus was the only option for their families. Weinberg and her former husband both work and they rely on the bus to take their child to school.

“It’s critical to get him to school in a timely manner and to get him home safely,” Weinberg said. One of the parents would have to drive the child if there was no bus, and Weinberg said she’d have to adjust her entire work schedule to accommodate the change.

The meeting was not a decision-making one that would determine continuing or halting service. It was intended to ask the board if they want to hold further meetings about the issue, which they voted to do. AC Transit Board President Eliza Ortiz said the community meeting will be held as soon as the end of April.

In January, AC Transit received notice from the Oakland Unified School District that it will no longer pay about $2.5 million for bus service agreed upon by the two agencies in a 20-year-old memo of understanding. A spokesman with Oakland Unified School District said it is the only school district within the AC Transit system that pays for the service and the routes predated any arrangement with the school district.

The proposed cuts will eliminate 17 bus routes and affect a ridership of more than 1,600 daily passengers.

The buses take some students from the lower-income flatlands to the Oakland hills schools. AC Transit said the cuts will save $2.72 million.

Parents and others argue that AC Transit provides bus service to private schools, like Head-Royce Schools and others, that do not pay extra for service.

While one speaker for the bus drivers’ union urged parents to not blame bus drivers, another speaker also said that Oakland Unified School District is also to blame for the problem and that the service isn’t entirely AC Transit’s responsibility. That speaker received the only applause from the board of directors, a seemingly official sentiment that was booed by the public.

Melissa Brewster, a mother living at 83rd Street and MacArthur Boulevard, said her children go to Skyline High and may be forced out of that school if bus service is cut.

“If I were in your position, I wouldn’t want to make a decision that would cause so much inequity in the community,” she said.

As the board agreed to the community meetings — board president Eliza Ortiz backed away from public hearings because they require so much public notice — board member Christian Peeples said he took the bus to and from school when he was growing up in San Francisco and public transportation was an integral part of his life.

“Everybody agrees that K through 12th-grade education and public transit are woefully underfunded in California,” he said. “This pits them against one another.”