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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The Jefferson County Board of Education is weighing its options for transportation next school year as it looks for a solution to issues that have plagued Louisville's public school system since the start of this school year.

The options: settle for the current status of students missing millions of instructional minutes, reduce number of bus stops by having some students be picked up from a central location or no longer provide transportation for some students.

The board is set to take the next month to decide on a new transportation plan for Jefferson County Public Schools, but the debate is just beginning.

During the board's meeting Tuesday evening, the district said it has three options to consider, leaving parents waiting for a final decision to figure out how to plan for the next school year.

Cassie Kidd's child attends Fairdale High School, she applied to its emergency responders magnet program. Kidd said no options are off the table depending on how JCPS plans to move forward with transportation next school year.

"I would pull my kid out of JCPS," said Kidd.

While she waits for the board to make a decision, Kidd said she's teaching her kids how to ride TARC just in case.

"She doesn't want to leave her friends, she doesn't want to leave her schools," she said.

Without a car, Kidd's daughter relies on a JCPS bus to get to and from Fairdale High School. But she's at risk of losing a seat on the bus next year.

"We can't get our kids back and forth from school, so if they take buses away from the magnet school, they would have to go to their reside school, which is Iroquois (High School), and I don't want my kid going there," said Kidd.

JCPS currently has 558 drivers with 563 routes. On top of that, 52 drivers are absent daily on average, leaving the district with 506 drivers available daily. 

Next school year, JCPS predicts to have 526 drivers. If the average number of call outs continue, the district would start the day with 474 drivers. JCPS goal is to have 474 routes or less a day.

The three options JCPS is weighing for transportation next year include:

  • Keep the current system and its associated delays
  • Operate central hubs where magnet and traditional students could get bused to school from a drop-off point instead of from their neighborhoods
  • No longer provide buses for students who attend magnet and traditional schools, and only transport students who attend reside schools or an A5 school and students who require transportation under federal law, such as students experiencing homelessness or students in special education.

The district said the third option, to no longer provide transportation for magnet and traditional schools, is the only one that will get them in a spot to have more drivers than routes next year. Right now, JCPS starts every school day with more routes than it has drivers. The district said this option will reduce the number of routes needed with buses clearing by 6-6:15 p.m.

Option No. 2, the district said, would still cause bus delays with a bus clear time of 6:45-7 p.m. And option No. 3 would make buses even later than this school year with a clear time of 7:15-7:30 p.m., JCPS said.

JCPS said it transports around 16,000 magnet and traditional school students. If the district eliminates transportation for magnet students, JCPS is preparing half of those students to transfer to their reside school.

"I do not think, as an educator, that would be the case," said JCPS' Chief Operations Officer Rob Fulk. "But as I said, we've been very conservative in the way we model this, so we built the routing structure off 50%."

If transportation is limited next school year, JCPS expects an influx of students to transfer to their reside school so they can still have a bus ride to and from school. If that happens, the district said it may need to change boundary lines if some neighborhood schools become over-occupied.

Fulk added, if transportation is eliminated for magnet or traditional schools, start times may change for some schools, however the district will not return to two start times. 

While the district sees the cuts as a possible solution, board members are concerned about limiting students' access to magnet schools.

"We don't need to move forward with any option that has concerns around racial equity, that undermines our commitment as a district," Board member Corrie Shull said.

To ease some concerns, JCPS said it is working with TARC to potentially add stops closer to schools, and offer passes to middle and high school students. The district said it is also looking into gas stipends for families, but those details are still being worked out. 

While the district works, parents wait.

"Just let us know what we have to do so we can make a plan," said Kidd.

The district is asking the board to vote on a decision in March, to help give families time to prepare and to allow its internal routing team to start working on routes as soon as possible.

JCPS students lost nearly 4 million minutes of instructional time because of bus delays in the October-December period of 2023, nearly four times the instructional time lost during the same period in 2022, according to a WDRB News analysis of data obtained in a public records request.

Last year, there were only two school start times. Middle school and high schools started at 7:40 a.m., while elementary schools started at 9:05 a.m. Under the new plan, start times range from 7:40 a.m. to 10:40 a.m.

The new system had a disastrous rollout in August when delays forced the cancellation of six days of school. Things have improved since then, but the new data sheds light on the issues schools continue to grapple with each day.

JCPS parents regularly receive text messages notifying them of bus delays. One such message last month said a bus from Atherton High School would be delayed "approximately 3.5 hours."

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