LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) is working to get to the bottom of the busing issue that made itself known on Wednesday.
JCPS board member Dr. Corrie Shull sat down with WHAS11 News' Doug Proffitt to answer some of the questions and concerns parents have.
He said he hopes to have students back in class as soon as possible because their goal "is to increase proficiency and literacy and numeracy and we just can't accomplish that with students not being in school."
"We'll go back to school when we have a plan to get every student to school and home from school in an efficient and safe manner," Shull said.
When asked by WHAS11 News if Superintendent Dr. Marty Pollio, the transportation director or other JCPS leaders need to be fired, Shull responded by saying "I think that there are those who would call for those individuals to be relieved of their duties. I don't know that that will more quickly get us to a solution. We need to get kids back in schools first."
He said the anger and frustration felt across Louisville is "100% valid" and he cannot imagine what some parents had to go through Wednesday.
"However, we know that JCPS educates 96,000 students, and though, and because I think JCPS understands how badly we messed up yesterday, we'll do everything that we need to do in order to get it right," Shull said.
Several parents and guardians have expressed their frustrations and concerns over the fiasco saying their kids didn't get home until hours after school ended. JCPS said the last students were dropped off at 9:58 p.m. Wednesday.
JCPS paid AlphaRoute $265,000 to optimize its bell schedule and bus routes ahead of the new school year. Instead of improving JCPS busing, the new routes caused confusion and unprecedented delays for the district.
UPS offered to help the district optimize its bus routes.
"We're trying to ensure that we are using their technology and their expertise, but UPS, they transport cargo, we transport children, and there are other layers and concerns that come with that," Shull said.
UPS spokesman Jim Mayer said the company was the first side to engage in dialogue about potentially helping out.
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