JCPS data shows 1 million minutes of instruction time lost in 17 days

LOUISVILLE, KY. (WDRB) -- Jefferson County Public Schools students missed over one million minutes of instruction time in just 17 days.

That's according to data the district just provided. JCPS compared a stretch of 17 school days this October to last October.

Looking at total instructional minutes lost this school year, from Oct. 9 to Oct. 31, JCPS saw students lose 1,346,272 minutes. Last year, between Oct. 6 to Oct. 31, 323,972 minutes were lost.

*Data provided by Jefferson County Public Schools, "Late Occurrences" are each individual instance of a student being late due to the bus running late.       

In the data provided, JCPS said "For this school year, we started with the first day after 2023 Fall Break - the first day that we had the reliable tracking system in place."

The data backs up what parents have spoken out about since the first day of school.

"They're (the bus) always, like maybe an hour late," said parent Mary Weston. "Sometimes they don't show up."

Weston said she had to leave her job because she was showing up late every day to ensure her children made it on the bus.

"It's crazy, and JCPS should be ashamed of theirselves," Weston said.

Late buses are a problem the district has dealt with for the last several years. The district said it was facing a bus driver shortage, and, in response, needed to make major changes.

"Doing nothing means we would end up with the same problems next year," said Superintendent Dr. Marty Pollio at a press conference in February 2023.

The press conference was over changing start times from two to nine staggered start times. In March, the board approved a plan changing start times from 7:40 a.m. and 9:05 a.m. to nine times, ranging from 7:40 a.m. to as late as 10:40 a.m. Most schools would start at either 7:40 a.m., 8:40 a.m. or 9:40 a.m. 

"These nine start times completely solve our issues around transportation, I can't say that clearly enough," Pollio said at the same February press conference.

The district also changed bus routes to address the driver shortage. For the 2023-24 school year, JCPS used a program developed by a firm called AlphaRoute out of Massachusetts to help with planning routes and assigning bus stop locations. The program — developed by graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — uses artificial intelligence to generate the routes with the intent of reducing the number of routes. JCPS had 730 routes last year, and that was cut to less than 600 beginning this year.

Yet the changes have not shown improvement for minutes students are missing in the classroom.

"I thought it was going to be bad, I didn't know it was, well not to this extent," Weston said. "I didn't think they would maybe be an hour late or not show up."

District leaders wouldn't comment on the data during a public meeting Wednesday evening, but did point out these changes mean a greater number of students are missing some class, individually they are missing less time. 

The school board will meet next Tuesday, Dec. 5, where they will provide another transportation update.

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