SCCPSS: Mid-Year Transportation Update

The board is receiving a mid-year update on transportation. Close to 94% of high school buses arrive on time while almost 97% of middle schools and about 93% of alternative schools are arriving at school on time. Only 86% of the elementary school buses are arriving on time. Otis Brock, chief operations officer, says that the later delays come with the tight 4-tiered bell system.

"I can't help but think about the decision that we made before the start of the school year to push back that last elementary time slot by 10 minutes I believe. I believe we were going to start school at 9:15 and we had a lot of input at the last minute to move it to 9:05 and it would seem to me that the data would indicated that that is in fact causing some of the problems," says district 7 board member, Julie Gerbsch.

Certainly where we've had our challenges is our elementary schools. Only 5 of our elementary schools are above 90% on-time arrival time and Brock says that's disappointing. There are more than 600 runs each morning, which is a lot of buses on the road.

The transportation budget is $13.2 million with $12.95 million coming from the district. The state only funds $3.35 million. The fuel budget is $2.97 million. 30% of the transportation budget is used for specialty programs. That does not include the fuel cost, that's the route cost.

Right now, there are 316 routes with 1,217 runs; 6,085 runs per week.

Brock says they need an upgrade to the radio communications because there are areas in the county that the radios do not have service.

Brock says the district has stressed customer service and the way that First Student employees handle talking to parents.

"If they have to put extra people on early in the morning and extra people on in the afternoon if somebody were to answer the phone at First Student, parents time and time again, teachers, principals, say they wait for 20 minutes and then they're cut off or nobody ever comes back. That's the absolute worst form of customer service," exclaims Dr. Joe Buck, school board president.

There are 355 district owned buses in operation and 48 buses belonging to First Student in use. Instead of replacing buses like the district would have in the past, the plan is to buy replacement engines and parts for 14 of the older buses.

The First Student contract is up in June of 2010.