LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Residents have been wondering why they are seeing JCPS school buses. School for online classes starts on August 25 but in-class learning is postponed until September.
JCPS spokesperson Renee Murphy explains this is normal.
“This is what we typically do at the beginning of the school year the bus drivers pick out their routes and do simulations of the routes this is all part of normal procedure so even though we're not having in-person instruction right now our drivers are still going through that training,” Renee Murphy said.
Murphy said although the cost of training drivers and fuel comes at the expense of $800,000, it's money that's budgeted every year for back to school.
The money JCPS saved last year on drivers and fuel by letting out early because of COVID-19 has been spent on other expenses and this year schools will get even less money from occupational taxes because employment at JCPS has gone down since the pandemic started.
Since buses have been in hibernation since school let out last spring Murphy explains while you'll continue seeing buses on the roads again.
“Well our buses can't sit idle for too long the maintenance of the buses we need to make sure they are up and moving and we also need to keep up with training of these bus drivers so we have to maintain our regular procedures to keep these buses in place so when we do return to school our buses are ready to go and ready to roll,” Murphy said.
August has been all about training. Teachers, staff, and bus drivers-have all been doing their best preparing for the fall semester as best as Covidly possible!
You can expect to see buses on the road until the end of the month and possibly into early next September.