LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Some students at traditional and magnet schools in Jefferson County Public Schools returned to bus stops Monday.

The state's largest school district said around 1,000 magnet and traditional school students had their bus stops reinstated, a total of 56 routes. Their parents opted out of the stipends for driving the students.

Parent Lashonda Lacy opted for her students to receive transportation again. Two of her sons attend Johnson Traditional Middle School and were without a bus most of the school year.

"I was having to find somebody pick them up from school every day," Lacy said.

Her other son, had to transfer from Butler High School to Doss High School, his reside school.

Last April, the Jefferson County Board of Education voted for a plan that cut transportation to all magnet and traditional schools, with the exception of Central and Western high schools, which both have a 75% threshold of students on free or reduced lunch.

Earlier this year, JCPS board of education restored transportation for Male, Manual and Butler High School students on free or reduced lunch; all students at Johnson Traditional Middle School; all students at Coleridge Taylor and Young Elementary Schools.

That is because enough TARC drivers, who otherwise would have been laid off from the city transit system, received the proper certification to drive a school bus, in addition to their CDL. 

Reinstating transportation now means Lacy's sons at Johnson Traditional have a ride. Her other son who transferred out of Butler, will transfer back next school year.

"A lot of changes, but we've overcame them. So, I'm excited," Lacy said. 

Lacy said Monday morning pickup went well, although she requested her sons' bus stop location be changed before Monday.

"The original bus stop was down the street, but there's no sidewalk to walk down the street to get there, so they did change it," Lacy said. "Bus was on time, and everything was fine.

"The first day of implementation, we had a couple of kinks that we had to work through, but our drop off time was within our window to all the schools that had added back service," said Rob Fulk, JCPS' Chief Operations Officer.

Fulk said it took several steps before reinstating routes, which included: surveying parents, creating new bus routes, bidding routes to new and existing drivers, and practicing routes.

Fulk added JCPS is now transporting close to 50,000 students a day. 

Before enough TARC drivers were certified and routes were restored, Fulk said TARC drivers had other assignments.

"They were either driving busses once they had their CDL 'S' (certification), or they were doing McKinney-Vento (homeless assistance) van runs, or they were doing ride-alongs with existing bus drivers as additional supporter to learn new routes," Fulk said. "Or they were in class to get the CDL 'S' with us." 

Fulk said as of now, the district plans to continue with this transportation system next school year.

"What we're transporting today will be what we're transporting next year," Fulk said. "So as far as we know, nothing is changing."

Fulk said the district still does not have enough drivers to restore transportation for all students, but it continues to recruit.

"We're still pretty far off from that in number of bus drivers. But what we have right now and what we did today, yes, I do, we can transport that next year," Fulk said. "We'll have bus driver hiring blitz... We've obviously made some pretty significant changes to the bus driver experience at JCPS in terms of compensation, work, life, balance, getting the compounds back into geographic regions so that our drivers aren't driving as long and don't have to drive as far across the county and work as late hours."

To find a student's specific bus stop location by using the JCPS bus transportation portal, Bus Teller, click here. 

JCPS also encourages parents to call the hotline a 502-485-7433 if they have bus issues.

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