Kentucky’s largest school system has been forced to cancel three days of classes because their overhaul of the district’s transportation system has been such a nightmare. According to the Associated Press, the new routes left some children on buses until nearly 10 p.m. on the first day of school. That is… less than ideal.
Jefferson County Public Schools Superintendent Marty Pillio reportedly said the citation was a “transportation disaster.” He then apologized to the district’s 96,000 students and their families, the bus drivers and the school officials who had to stay with students for hours after school ended as they waited for busses to arrive earlier this week. All in all, the district encompasses Louisville and it has 65,000 daily riders.
The AP reports that Pillio said the decision to close school on Thursday and Friday of this week was “the most difficult of his career,” but it was deemed necessary. No school means a bit of a reset for the route plans. District officials will reportedly spend the four days before Monday reviewing routes and having drivers practice them.
One parent reportedly said that the bus for her two elementary school children was scheduled to pick them up at 6 a.m. for a 7:40 a.m. school start time. They told the outlet that the bus stop is nearly half of a mile from their home and there aren’t any sidewalks. The AP says the parent called the district’s transportation department, but she was told that nothing could be changed. That’s because Kentucky law allows elementary school bus stops to be up to a half-mile away. Meanwhile, middle and high school students may have to walk up to a mile.
But, how did we get here? What the hell went wrong? Well, don’t worry. I won’t leave you hanging. According to the AP, in an attempt to alleviate the issue of a bus driver shortage which left the district unable to keep up with current routes, folks in charge implemented major changes to routes and school start times. The district even spent $199,000 on hiring AlphaRoute, an engineering firm, to create a plan that would cut down on the number of bus routes and stops.
Pillio told the outlet that even after the district increased pay and cut routes last year, it didn’t have enough drivers. Throughout the year, students were getting to school late and leaving school late.
Jefferson County School District opened an online comment form for the new routes back on July 24th. It reportedly received thousands of complaints from parents who were concerned that their kids were going to have to walk really far to catch a bus. There were also piles of complaints about the idea that some of the stops were at busy, unsafe intersections. The district is said to be reviewing the parent requests for changes.
