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JCPS cancels school Thursday and Friday because of major transportation issues

  • Updated
  • 5 min to read

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Jefferson County Public Schools canceled classes for students Thursday and Friday due to severe transportation issues. 

Wednesday was the first day of school for JCPS students. However, some students didn't get home until almost 10 p.m. amid new bus routes and school start times.

At 5:13 a.m., JCPS parents got a text alert that said school would be canceled on Thursday, Aug. 10, and Friday, Aug. 11. Families were also told CEP will contact families if there are any changes in service. All families were directed to their email for more information.

"We will use these next four days to work through the issues experienced yesterday and make fixes to ensure the safety and well-being of our students and staff," JCPS spokeswoman Carolyn Callahan said Thursday morning.

The district said it would send an email when the last student had been dropped off Wednesday. That email came at 10 p.m. A JCPS spokesperson said as of 9:58 p.m., all bus riders had been dropped off.

District leaders didn't comment on first day of school transportation issues until sharing a letter at 11:30 p.m. that was sent to JCPS families from Superintendent Dr. Marty Pollio.

Pollio released a video statement early Thursday morning, apologizing to students, parents and staff for the problems on the first day.

"First I want to apologize to our students," Pollio said in the statement. "I know many of you had to wait on buses or wait in your school for several hours, and I truly apologize for that. I know how unnerving and unsettling that must have been for even our youngest students, but all of our students and we truly apologize to you." 

Pollio also apologized to parents, bus drivers and school staff who worked overtime staying with students for hours after school to answer questions from parents and make sure everyone got home safely. 

"The difficult part for me is it was a great day in our school with awesome, incredible instruction. Kids excited, families excited, new school buildings, and the transportation disaster that we had last night was truly unacceptable." 

Diane Porter, chair of the Jefferson County Board of Education, released a statement Thursday afternoon saying the board will ask Pollio for a "full accounting" of what happened Wednesday.

"While we have confidence in Dr. Pollio and his team and their ability to correct this untenable situation, we will deploy whatever resources necessary to help them," Porter said. "... We must be able to get our students to and from school in a safe, reliable way. They are the reason we are here, and we will always act in their best interests. Working together we will generate solutions to get students back to school safely as soon as possible."

Pollio said the following actions are being taken to remedy the issues:

"First and foremost, we are going to be reviewing all bus routes and all bus stops over the next four days for efficiency, making sure that that we get all students to and from school efficiently," he said. "Second of all we're gonna be having our bus drivers have extra days, we're gonna pay them extra days, to practice their new routes which is a big challenge, I understand, for them, but they need more practice with this.

"We're going to be improving our communication structures between families and schools and us."

"And, finally, we are going to dramatically increase our call center, 485-RIDE, over the next four days so that we can answer all questions for families and do the best we can to solidify all bus stops and make sure that when we come back to school we are efficient and safe and getting our students home safely."

Pollio accepted full responsibility for the problems, saying "we have to be better at what we are doing. And once again I'll say this: that lies squarely on my shoulders, and my team's shoulders. It is not on bus drivers, it's not on the schools. It's on me and my team. And we are going to fix this. We are going to take the next four days to make sure we work extremely hard to fix the errors that are in our transportation system right now. But I have to make sure our kids are safe, and we will not have a repeat of what happened. And we will not be in school until I know we can get kids home safely."

WDRB has reached out to all JCPS board members for reaction. 

District 2's Dr. Chris Colb said in a statement that what happened was unacceptable.

"Everyone in JCPS transportation needs to take a long look in the mirror and identify who made mistakes and used poor judgment and figure out how to rapidly fix those mistakes and eliminate poor judgment," Kolb said. "I fear that yesterday represents a small taste of how the staffing crisis in schools will continue to affect JCPS. The staffing crisis is at the root of many problems in schools and, as a board, we must immediately take courageous and decisive steps to attract and retain more staff. Clearly, the board is not doing near enough to adequately staff JCPS and children are paying the price."

District 5's Linda Duncan said the delays are "far beyond" what board members anticipated.

"All of our families are sacrificing in the hopes that this will get better," she said. "I did not vote in support of this schedule but will do my best to help our families find solutions to their bus issues."

Thursday, Duncan said the district still hasn't communicated with the board what exactly went wrong, and that relying on an external company, like AlphaRoute, was the wrong move.

"I just think you can't rely on that outside view of this district. It's too complex to turn that all over to an outside source and let them plot for us," she said. "I had reservations about them as well based on reports I had read from some of the other districts."

Duncan said the district should have hired more drivers to fill the original 730 routes, and is hopeful a new plan can be in place by Monday.

Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg is offering to help the district and parents during this time. 

"I also understand the disappointment that parents around our city have this morning, and I also ask employers to show some understanding and flexibility with parents of JCPS students who were thrown this curveball," Greenberg said.

The mayor said he talked to Pollio Thursday morning and told him Metro Government would be there for the district now and in the future. He said he believes he and his team are working around the clock to get the problem fixed before kids go back to school again. He also encourages parents to take advantage of the city's parks and libraries until then, as well as a discounted rate at the Louisville Zoo.

Hundreds of people have contacted the WDRB newsroom through calls, emails and social media to express their frustration.

"They are giving them two days off and saying it's snow days. The kids shouldn't be penalized," Mike Seebold wrote on Facebook. "It could end up making them go more at the end of the year. I'm just saying it's not the kids fault."

Katie McDaniel wrote that the district has had more than enough time to implement and fix the issues with bus system and haven't yet.

"Do you really think they are going to do it in 4 days?" she said.

Brenda Miller added that it was unfair to parents to wait until 5 a.m. to call school off for the rest of the week.

"It's not fair to parents not letting them know the night before so they can arrange child care," she said. "A lot of parents work. Good luck, parents."

Lisa Holstein took issue with the school assignment plan, blaming it for kids needing to be bussed all over the county.

"If they didn't bus kids all over the county and kept them in their neighborhood schools, I bet you wouldn't have that problem," she said. "But I guess that's too easy."

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