LOUISVILLE, Ky. — After two months, Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) is responding to a blistering audit of the district's transportation system.
Superintendent Marty Pollio said the school district agrees with the majority of the findings listed in the report, but he's pushing back against some "inaccurate" conclusions drawn by the auditing company.
Prismatic Services, an education consultant, was hired by the Jefferson County Board of Education to investigate the first day of school transportation meltdown that unfolded last August.
The audit found JCPS' communication and collaboration in the rollout of new bus routes was ineffective.
On Tuesday, Pollio submitted a 19-page response to Board members and Prismatic, saying the district is making necessary improvements.
Can't access the above PDF embed? Click here to read the full document.
Pollio told a district advisory committee on Wednesday that JCPS has either already implemented, or is planning to implement, changes to satisfy most recommendations listed in the audit report published in March.
The adjustments include five new 'work teams' to divide up responsibilities for next school year, to ensure a better start.
He said district leaders are also going to be enforcing a "pause period" toward the end of July. It's essentially a cut-off time after which the district won't add any more bus stops, in order to give drivers and families enough time to plan accordingly.
"If I could go back and do something different, it would be this 'pause period' to say no bus stops are being added after July 25. We’ll get to those," Pollio told the audit and risk management advisory committee. “I think we have improved as a result of these recommendations. I would say that the vast majority of them – we are either complete or on the way to completing.”
Pollio called some of Prismatic founder Dr. Tatia Prieto's claims "erroneous assertions," referring to her March presentation to the JCPS Board. He suggests Prieto underestimated the district's ongoing bus driver shortage and didn't acknowledge their increases to bus driver salaries.
"We did have some responses of what we felt were not quite factual things that occurred at the specific meeting itself," Pollio said.
One of Prismatic’s recommendations was adjusting school start times. In the letter, Pollio said they’ve condensed bell times to three -- with a priority put on planning bus routes based on geographic regions.
Pollio says there will be weekly "transportation status meetings" to allow for more effective communication.
JCPS leaders said they’re nearly 30% done with new bus routes for the 2024-25 school year.
In the letter, Pollio revealed the district has been working to install cameras and tablets with GPS on each bus, which was also a Prismatic recommendation.
A JCPS spokesperson said 723 out of 725 buses have the camera systems installed, as of May 22.
Make it easy to keep up-to-date with more stories like this. Download the WHAS11 News app now. For Apple or Android users.
Have a news tip? Email assign@whas11.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter feed.