LOUISVILLE, Ky. — All eyes were on Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) Thursday morning as nearly 97,000 students returned to the classroom, a year after myriad transportation issues led to major problems and national headlines for the district.
WHAS11 crews visited several bus stops across the city Thursday on the first day back. For the most part, buses appeared to arrive on time to pick up students. Some parents on social media told WHAS11 their child’s buses were also on time.
"There's only so much you can do with the resources they've been allotted. I really wasn't believing anything until we were here and they were on the bus and it was still Thursday," Alisa Jones said, adding that she was fine with the bus picking up her daughter 10 minutes late in the Upper Highlands.
Former JCPS bus driver Jamie Owen saw her kids picked up on-time in Fairdale. This year she believed the district's optimism regarding first day procedures for the first time.
"Everybody's in their compound areas instead of going all over the city, so it was on time and I'm actually pretty confident about it. So, it's gonna be a good year," she said.
The biggest issue Thursday morning was long lines to drop off students at some schools, according to parents.
Cars as far as the eye could see were lined up outside Audubon Elementary well after classes had already started.
“Drop off car rider line was bananas!” another parent wrote to WHAS11 about their child's school. “We left at 9:13…school starts at 9:40 and I dropped off at 10:01. Let’s see how the afternoon goes.”
Mindy Amos said her husband had a difficult time dropping their child off at Male High School.
"Kids were jumping out of the cars on Preston Highway to get to the school to try and get there on time," she said. "So my daughter was late, I think she was about 15 to 20 minutes late to school because he stayed in the car-rider line and she stayed in the car."
Drop-off lines were expected to be heavier than usual this year since buses were no longer going to most magnet and traditional schools as part of JCPS’ new transportation plan.
Whether those long lines continue into the afternoon pick-up is yet to be seen.
Bus drivers have been practicing new handcrafted routes, created by the district’s new internal routing team, for several days leading up to Thursday.
Superintendent Marty Pollio indicated earlier in the week that the practice days showed promising results and had built confidence amongst leaders that the district would have a smoother time getting students to and from school.
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