District working to restore busing services to pre-pandemic levels

At the May 26 school board meeting district leaders shared information about their plans to restore bus service to pre-pandemic levels. Schmitty and Sons, the district’s new transportation vendor, is doing everything possible to purchase buses and hire drivers for the coming year. At this time they’ve been able to guarantee service to 70 routes, which is an improvement from the 65 routes in service currently. Their goal is to bring service back to pre-pandemic levels (79 routes) as soon as possible. 

No action was taken at the school board meeting. Instead, district leaders had a conversation about possible short-term options to provide transportation to more students next year. The priority is to restore service to elementary students at pre-pandemic levels, which means students living .5 miles or further from school would receive a ride next year. The board asked administration to continue developing options to provide busing to GATE students and adjust transportation zones for middle school and high school students. The board will discuss the topic again at a future meeting. More information about transportation services for the 2022-2023 school year will be shared with families as it becomes available.