LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- More than a week after the official first day of school, some Jefferson County Public Schools students returned to classrooms Friday.

Students began the new school year Wednesday, Aug. 9, but the first day was plagued with bus delays in the morning and the afternoon as the district had implemented new school start times and bus routes. Some students' buses never showed up that morning, and others didn't get dropped off from school that evening until almost 10 p.m.

JCPS decided to cancel classes for Thursday and Friday and later extended that closure to include Monday and Tuesday of this week. Monday, the district said schools would remain closed Wednesday and Thursday before implementing a "staggered" return.

Elementary and middle school students were the first to return Friday before high school students follow on Monday. Superintendent Marty Pollio said the weekend would allow the district time to make any needed adjustments before Monday.

Part of the JCPS transportation plan to mitigate some of the delays includes students switching buses at different compounds including the Nichols Bus Compound where staff helped direct them to their next bus that drops them off at school. 

As those buses were on their way, staff at Goldsmith Elementary used an app to track their arrival times.

Goldsmith Principal Jessica Carter said the app worked well and was extremely helpful for staff to know when students were arriving. She also said that although their transportation issues at Goldsmith weren't as serious as other schools last week, the school still worked with the district to make some adjustments.

"The app has been great," Carter said. "We're able to look and see when we're feeling like a bus should be here based on simulations yesterday. We can look the bus up and see where they're at and that's been very helpful."

A total of 13 buses dropped students off at Goldsmith, with most arriving early, on time or within a few minutes of the school's 9:40 start time. Only one bus was significantly late, arriving over an hour after classes started. 

"We had some students who did not have bus stops yet so we have worked on that," Carter said. "We had some students whose bus stopes were not at a safe distance so we've worked on that. We had some students who attend daycares and we needed to work on getting those stops door-to-door, and worked on that."

The app used by Goldsmith staff and other schools to track buses on Friday is not yet available to parents. The district is advising parents with concerns to wait until their child's bus is at least 45 minutes late. At that point, they should call their child's school. If they still don't have answers, they can call 485-RIDE.

District leaders said the bus hotline will stay open Friday until the all students have been dropped off.

JCPS announced four other immediate changes that were going to be in place for students getting back on the bus Friday morning:

  • School leaders will have access to the Edulog Parent Portal Lite app to help families know where buses are in real-time. This app will also be available for JCPS parents as soon as we finalize our internal systems to support guardian access.
  • Some bus drivers will have a JCPS employee riding with them to help guide them through challenging routes.
  • Additional traffic flow support at some of our highest traffic areas.
  • Increased communication support at bus compounds and the JCPS 485-RIDE Call Center to better answer families' questions.

JCPS has a new "Return to School" website meant to help parents check the district's Bus Finder and get answers to common questions. To access it, click here.

The district is also asking parents to observe a 45-minute "grace period" after the scheduled arrival time of children before calling to track down their bus.

How's your student's return to school going? Leave pictures or a comment on WDRB's Facebook post.

Related Stories:

Copyright 2023 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.