2,100 students losing bus service in a JoCo school district. Another may do the same
As a Band-Aid solution to address an ongoing shortage of drivers, the Olathe school district will eliminate some bus routes next school year.
Nearby, Blue Valley school officials are considering similar cuts, as other districts in the Kansas City area have already done.
And Olathe district officials may eventually revisit a broader, and more controversial, fix for the shortage: changing the times schools start and end.
Administrators on Thursday told the school board that they would eliminate about 25 bus routes for 2,100 middle and high school students who live within 2.5 miles of their school. Those students pay for bus service, while students who live farther away ride for free.
The district also plans to continue eliminating routes as needed on a rolling basis, requiring families to find alternative transportation on days when bus drivers aren’t available. The district will cut down on field trips. And bus stops for secondary students will be farther way, increasing from a quarter-mile from their homes to a half-mile.
“Throughout our region and throughout the country with the transportation challenges and staffing challenges … we can’t transport as many kids who would like to be transported on a daily basis,” Jim McMullen, an assistant superintendent, told the school board.
The Blue Valley school district is considering similar changes for next fall, possibly eliminating 10 routes for more than 700 middle and high school students paying for transportation who live between 1.5 and 2.5 miles of their schools. No secondary student living within 1.5 miles from school will have bus service, and bus stop distances will jump to a half-mile where it is deemed safe to do so.
District officials said the changes are needed “despite exhaustive efforts to attract and retain bus drivers.” The school board will consider the change at its meeting on Monday.
McMullen said earlier this spring the Olathe district was short 32 drivers, and those routes are being covered by office staff, substitute drivers and others who can fill in.
In addition to canceling routes on certain days, the district has been crowding buses with more students, combining middle and high school students on the same bus and extending ride times.
“We have a substantial wait list of families unable to receive transportation, as well as several buses that regularly arrive up to 30 minutes late for pick up/drop off,” district officials said in a notice to families.
Half of the 2,100 students losing bus service are on free and reduced lunch, Superintendent Brent Yeager said, adding that the district will monitor whether attendance rates will worsen as a result.
But the temporary fix for next school year will only go so far in the challenging labor market, officials said. The Olathe district continues its months-long study to stagger school start and end times so that fewer drivers are needed because they would have the time to complete up to three routes each day. Currently, only half of the buses can complete more than one route per shift.
The conversation has led to concerns and opposition from several parents, leading officials last month to say they would slow the process down.
“This has been a challenging conversation, as it impacts us all differently, and we recognize that our families, staff and community are not yet ready to move forward with this level of systemic change,” officials said.
Elementary, middle and high schools already start and end at different times. But officials could set a new schedule so that there is a larger gap between those bell times.
On Thursday, Yeager said the district will continue studying the idea, plus gather more feedback from students, parents and staff, to determine next steps. He said a decision could be made in December, with any change implemented in fall 2024.
Other Kansas City area districts have been offering bonuses and incentives, trying to attract and retain more bus drivers amid ongoing shortages first seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some districts eliminated routes at the start of this school year, and some have been so short on drivers that they have notified families at the last minute that their child’s bus was not going to come.
At the start of this school year, the Raytown district said it would bus elementary students only if they live at least a mile away from their school, as opposed to a half-mile in previous years. And middle and high school students now have to live at least 1.5 miles away to be eligible for the bus.
The Independence school district announced a similar decision, making bus routes only available to middle and high school students who live more than 1.5 miles from their schools. The change did not affect elementary students.
This story was originally published May 5, 2023 at 12:15 PM.
