LOUISVILLE, Ky. — JCPS returned it’s entire student body to the classroom for the first time since a nightmare transportation debacle forced school officials to cancel class and reassess how they will fix the district’s busing situation.
During the closure the district implemented short term fixes that they say drastically improved the quality of transportation when Elementary and Middle School students went back on Aug. 18.
Now the district’s plan will be put to the full test.
“We just have 10’s of thousands of more students, so probably about 20,000 more students riding buses, so that is obviously different.,” JCPS Chief of Communications Carolyn Calahan said.
The district saw four minor school bus crashes and one incident with a parent which slowed down some buses, but overall officials were pleased with how the full return played during the morning rides.
“There have been some incidents, some challenges that we’ve faced this morning, but in general things seem to be going pretty well,” Mark Hebert said.
Hebert works in the communications office for JCPS. WHAS11 asked him what the district is doing to combat extreme heat this week. Jefferson County is under a "Heat Advisory" until Thursday with heat index values likely to reach 103 degrees.
Hebert said it is "not unusual" for it to be this hot on school buses in the month of August.
"One thing I would tell parents is before your child leaves for the bus stop this morning, make sure you've got a water bottle in their back pack so they can fill it up for school for the ride home."
Hebert said there will be water accessible at the bus compounds and depots this week.
"Kids will be able to find some water, but I would pack that water bottle in their backpack if I were a parent," Hebert said.
The hot weather isn't the only concern on parents' minds this week. Parents are voicing their growing concern over bus delays in person and online.
Hebert says delays are inevitable and it’s just a matter of managing those delays and communicating them to school staff, drivers, and parents.
“There are still going to be delays,” Hebert said.
“There are still going to be kids getting to school late no matter what we do," he said. "But that said, things will even out over the next two weeks once kids know where they’re going to school, know their bus stop, know what bus their supposed to be on, and the drivers know all of their routes. So this should smooth out over the next couple of weeks.”
Out at Waggener High School, school officials agreed that the busing situation was substantially better the second time around.
“Last year in Waggener’s specific situation, we had a couple busloads of students missing the entire first period all year long,” Dr. Sarah Hitchins, the principal at Waggener, said.
Hitchins said that they hope to bring the focus back into the classrooms and away from the out of school issues.
“We just told our staff, you know, let’s just make this worth our students wait,” Hitchins said.
“You know when they get back let’s make it worth their wait," she said. "And so we’re just so excited to have the students back.”
JCPS officials say they will continue to work on long term solutions to address the transportation situation and hope to roll out a new bus tracking app to parents in the coming days.
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