LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) officials are confident students' first day of school on Thursday will be smoother than it was last year.
A transportation meltdown last August caused numerous issues during the first week of school including some buses not picking up students in the morning, some students not getting home until late at night, and classes needing to be canceled for a few days.
Superintendent Marty Pollio is hopeful it will be better getting students to and from school this year with the district implementing a new transportation plan that has been optimized for efficiency.
Still, district leaders expect some delays on Thursday and are advising parents to have patience on the first day.
“[The new transportation team] has been working seven days a week for the last couple of months at least,” Pollio said during a back-to-school news conference on Monday. “An immense amount of time went into this to rehaul our transportation system, but we’re very excited about the changes that have been made and the efficiencies that have been made.”
Bus drivers practiced their routes for two days last week with another practice day scheduled for Wednesday. The clear time during those practices was around 6:20 p.m., Pollio said.
“Obviously the first day will be much later than any other day because we have to be so deliberate about getting kids on the right bus, especially our youngest students and getting them home,” he said.
District officials expect the last student drop-off to be closer to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. However, district officials expect to be nearly an hour ahead as the school year continues.
Chief Operating Officer Rob Fulk said the biggest change with the transportation system is a new internal routing team comprised of people from Louisville, and any major routing decisions must go through them.
“Our two primary routers are folks that were bus compound coordinators for over 20 years that understand the streets of the city, understand the populations of our schools, understand our attendance zones and such,” Fulk said.
He added that the handmade routes increase mirrored routes for more students, meaning they will take the same bus in the morning and afternoon.
"We have increased technology on all of our buses this year [as well]," Fulk said. "They'll be utilizing increased GPS, increased cameras across the buses, and turn-by-turn navigation."
JCPS’ new transportation plan cut bus routes for magnet school students, which has resulted in some parents suing JCPS — arguing the new plan disproportionately impacts Black students.
According to Pollio, the decrease in routes was a “difficult decision,” but has allowed JCPS to have more bus drivers than routes for the first time in years. He said that was one of the biggest issues the district faced.
This school year, the district is starting out with 560 bus drivers and 510 routes. Seventy former TARC drivers are also working to obtain licenses to drive buses for the district.
Pollio anticipates presenting the school board with a plan to reimplement some of those routes on August 20. The board will also consider whether to allow students who pulled out of a magnet school because of cuts will be able to transfer back to the school if the restoration plan goes through.
That plan, however, is dependent on all 70 drivers passing their required exams.
“Only 14 have [the proper requirements], and so 56 do not,” he said. “They’re in the process of getting that testing and it’ll be done by the end of the month, but we also couldn’t bring a plan to our board not knowing how many bus drivers were gonna pass that.”
The lawsuit remains ongoing and could force the district to revert to its old transportation plan. Pollio said that would require a “huge lift” after months of planning.
“The narrative that all we would have to do is push a button is obviously not the case because [the team] has been working seven days a week for two months and then this goes back to April when they started this,” he said.
Although he is confident JCPS will be successful in the ruling, Pollio said the district is working on legal contingency plans but wouldn’t go into specifics.
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