I've been tracking this issue, my grandson is a student in L-ville. The Union president approached the school board on about June 1. He stated there were 155000 students in the city and outlying areas, and he wanted to start familiarizing the drivers, many of whom are new, one district at a time while there was time. The request was flatly denied. Now, I'm not really pro union, but it seems like he had a good idea. Now, thing are so screwed UPS volunteered to help with routing and training. Yes, even Brown thinks they can do it better. If the Post Office steps in....oh well. At least my daughter drives the kid both ways. Her job has flexible hours.

Jefferson County finally got the kids to school yesterday. The district and our $350k a year superintendent are patting themselves on the back since they got all the kids home by 8 pm.
Almost $2 billion budget and this is what we get.

Yes, that is exactly what every school district needs is a route that only has right hand turns, and includes the bus stopping multiple times on a street to drop kids based on their seating position in the bus.

On the other hand if USPS helps, the chance of you receiving a different kid at home is pretty high. No need to worry, set the child out by the street the next morning and perhaps yours will be delivered that evening to the proper address. If you're lucky and they are just incorrectly delivered a neighbor will be nice enough to walk the child down to you, or you could do the same with theirs.

It's still a helluva mess. This article is from today's Courier-Journal and I copied the text as CJ is a Ganett paywall loser fake news & propaganda sheet. School district is a disaster and the union is militant woke radicals that have corrupted Kentucky elections but Johnny still can't read. Really pisses me off what a shithole Louisville has become.


https://www.courier-journal.co...-remain/70623665007/

FTA:
But one bus driver whose name is being withheld because he fears retribution told The Courier Journal earlier Monday that things still need to be altered.

"I’m exhausted," he said of the start of this new year. "I’ve been very tired. I made a joke today that this is the second week that we’ve been back and it feels like we’ve done 30 days already. It's very exhausting."

The driver said he didn't get home on the first day until 8:20 p.m. - about two hours after his scheduled time. The route he was originally given required him to pick up dozens of students at a middle school at 2:20 p.m. and spend two hours dropping them off. But, his next pickup was at a high school at 3:20 and then an elementary at 4:20.

The driver said he and other drivers saw the impossibility of their new routes before the year began but it wasn't until the disastrous first day that district leaders started making changes.

"Everybody, even the coordinators, were thrown off," he said. "They weren’t expecting it to be how it was and none of the higher ups communicated with the coordinators or drivers about the mistakes."

Despite the busing issues, JCPS spokeswoman Carolyn Callahan said Monday that the district had not received the resignations of any bus drivers since the start of the year. The district employs roughly 600 drivers.

In its release Monday, JCPS pointed to a number of "short-term fixes" it has made since the disastrous first day Aug. 9, when hundreds of students were stuck at school for hours after dismissal. They include:

Contracting with Miller Transportation for 20 additional school buses and drivers.
Adding dozens of employees to answer the 485-RIDE hotline.
Using vans and other vehicles to take kids home who wind on a wrong bus.
Adding an app that allows employees to know where buses' locations so this can be communicated to parents.
Increasing staff at bus compounds to assist with communication.
The district has also postponed the start of early childhood classes, freeing up those drivers.

The bus driver who spoke to The Courier Journal said one of his routes was removed Monday, which got him off work at his scheduled time. But that was a temporary fix, he said, and overall the new system requires much more work from drivers.

Drivers work a split shift, but with routes that run longer than scheduled, drivers are losing out on their breaks before the afternoon and then are working much later, he said.

District leaders have been clear that they have not figured out long-term solutions to their busing woes. But, it's unclear what they will do to ensure students aren't getting home more than three hours after their school day ended.

"We are hoping that they change some things," the driver said. "Hopefully they can rearrange some stuff and make it easier on the drivers because we are worn out."

More:Ford union hosts strike authorization vote at Louisville Assembly and Kentucky Truck Plant

Contact reporter Krista Johnson at kjohnson3@gannett.com.

Can’t speak to the causes for, what appears to be a driver shortage in that particular district, however, in the district I’m knowledgeable about the COVID shot was a factor. Many of our local drivers were recently retired, looking to make a few extra bucks. When the shot was mandated ( or out of a concern over the virus itself) many of these drivers did not come back.

Silent

quote:

Originally posted by Silent:
Can’t speak to the causes for, what appears to be a driver shortage in that particular district, however, in the district I’m knowledgeable about the COVID shot was a factor. Many of our local drivers were recently retired, looking to make a few extra bucks. When the shot was mandated ( or out of a concern over the virus itself) many of these drivers did not come back.

Silent

The problem is they bus these kids all over the entire county to different schools instead of going to the school that is closest to them.
If they went to their neighborhood school a vast majority of them would be able to walk and the need for all this bussing would be a fraction of what is needed currently.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:

The problem is they bus these kids all over the entire county to different schools instead of going to the school that is closest to them.
If they went to their neighborhood school a vast majority of them would be able to walk and the need for all this bussing would be a fraction of what is needed currently.

Funny true story here: Years ago, a co-worker, department manager was relocated to another city, working for the same company. She was a Black woman, single mother, very sharp, with an elementary school age daughter who was also smart as a whip. My manager did a bunch of research before buying a house; she chose it mainly on location, within easy walking distance from an excellent school for her daughter. The location was in an upper middle income neighborhood, where she was one of the very few non-white residents.

The school board, in an effort to "balance" the school demographics, included her daughter in the kids who would be bussed from this white neighborhood to a mostly Black school on the other side of the city.

My manager told me that she was going to walk into the school board office to discuss this, saying "I can't wait until they get a look at my Black face!"

Maryland is having some of these issues too. Here in Howard County, the first day was last Monday. Busses late, busses never arriving, busses taking kids to the wrong school, kids still at school hours after school ends. Monday night they sent out an email saying 50 some routes would not be picked up for the rest of the week as they try and figure things out.

Our school board decided to hire a company for WA to provide most of the school bussing here. Seems no one is surprised except the people in charge. Who would have thought hiring a West Coast company to provide school bus service for an East Coast school system would work.....

https://www.wbaltv.com/article...chool-many/44934714#

quote:

The problem is they bus these kids all over the entire county to different schools instead of going to the school that is closest to them

If I had a shitty local school, and had the choice to send my kid to a different and better school, I would do that.

Each school should be in charge of its own bussing, as it is with private schools, which I use, because the schools in our area a shit, and the people that use these schools are trying to get their kids into the “School of choice” program.

I don’t know how the schools are in Louisville, KY, but if they’re all the same, and they are all excellent, then yes the kids should just go to the school down the road that they can walk, skip, or roll a hoop (with a stick) to.

All of that said, there still should be no excuse for what these dipshits are doing with bussing.

quote:

Originally posted by Veeper:
If I had a shitty local school, and had the choice to send my kid to a different and better school, I would do that.

If I'm a betting man, parental choice/wishes has NOTHING to do with which school the kids attend...Just Sayin'

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:

quote:

Originally posted by Veeper:
If I had a shitty local school, and had the choice to send my kid to a different and better school, I would do that.

If I'm a betting man, parental choice/wishes has NOTHING to do with which school the kids attend...Just Sayin'

Only say a parent gets is sending them to private school. Which should be every parents absolute #1 Priority.

When my kids rode the bus there was a rule that they could only spend one hour max on the bus per trip and could not be picked up more than an hour before start of class.

Was a good rule and adhered to very well.

I just started driving for a local school system. I had a great trainer, got my CDL and just started my route solo this past Monday. Coming from law enforcement, and teaching in a group home for troubled boys gave me a work experience to handle any issues. Then I drove a 45’ bus RV around the country for 10 years I have an advantage in driving. But putting the driving into the mix brings it to a whole new level. The school systems are always looking for new drivers. What the route schedulers do and how they orchestrate it is amazing. Put bus break downs and student bus transfers and it makes things interesting. I had a 3rd grader leave his book bag this morning on the bus….school attendant yelled to stop me. Cole with tears and being devastated that his hard work he put in for his assignments. Got his book bag and I asked for a fist bump on his way out. It’s just a small time the drivers have a with the kids but some of them have home lives that would make any normal human puke. There will be many stories I will have from this job but why not it’s better then just sitting on my ass doing nothing.

Oh Monday my first day alone. First being the new driver I get one of the older buses. Seniority has its advantages. On my morning route I found my bus losing power and having an exhaust indicator on the dash. The exhaust particulate can was plugged. I called dispatch they had me finish picking up the street I was on. Had a bus delivered within fifteen minutes. I transferred my students and finished my route. The afternoon I took out a spare bus. On my HS route almost finished one a half a block away from dropping off my last student the bus shuts down. Un able to start. I radio to dispatch my problems and the coordinate another bus picking up my elementary route. So I set up my triangles and my HS students walked that extra half a block. A mechanic picked me up and delivered me to meet the bus with my kids. That bus a connector let loose. The district is no where near the size of Louisville.

The kids being on a hot bus that long is insane. Because I am new and still learning my route I seem to be the last in. My routes last no longer than 40 minutes.

My goal is to make an impression on the students with as little time I have with them during the day.

The dispatch and school has locations of every bus, can look at vital information on the bus systems, and monitor speed. They are all equipped with cameras that can be reviewed. I have had two stop arm violators already. One couldn’t wait 30 seconds behind me as I was getting a second grader to the door. The second was a van lady was to busy looking at her phone.
With a push of a button I mark the tape for review. Do a report and they sent it off to LE.

Most of my pickups are door side with the exception of small down town streets.

The adventure begins

quote:

Originally posted by Ozarkwoods:
I just started driving for a local school system.

My goal is to make an impression on the students with as little time I have with them during the day.

The adventure begins

Best to you, sir. I think you can make a difference in the lives of some of these kids, I hope, at the end of the semester or year, that you feel you did.

I am going to journal my experiences. Start my own thread. Life and trials of a new school bus driver.