LOUISVILLE, Ky. — There's a new role for the Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) climate and culture staff.
They work with school leaders and teachers to improve the atmosphere in the schools. Now, they're also logging referrals and answering driver questions at bus compounds throughout the district. Matt Anderson is the Assistant Superintendent for the office. It's his job now to make sure driver behavior concerns are heard and handled.
"We thought the best solution was just to put somebody in front of them, that they can physically hand that referral to so that we can get that to our administrators as quickly as possible. We're looking at really streamlining that turn-around time," he said, adding a commitment to a 24-48 hour turnaround time on the referrals.
Those behavior referrals are when a driver recommends discipline for a rider misbehaving. Even with the new procedure, some drivers at the Jeffersontown Bus Compound are still worried if consequences will be handed out for bad behavior. The district's new policy, handed to drivers Wednesday morning, said updates will be provided weekly on whether action was taken or not.
The new process directs drivers to continue handwriting referrals. Then, climate and culture staff enters those into district software and tracks the resolution. The district originally told WHAS11 they would develop a digital reporting system for these referrals. JCPS hit the brakes on that idea after hearing some driver feedback.
"We really just wanna make sure, at the end of the day, we're not making more work for our compound coordinators or our bus drivers," Anderson said.
When it comes to lightening their load, there's still another thorn troubling drivers—the new routes leading to long drives.
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.