JCPS hopes to return students to school by the 'middle of next week' as it works to fix 'transportation disaster'
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Jefferson County Public Schools is planning to return students to class sometime in the middle of next week as it works to mitigate the issues that led to some students spending hours on a bus, getting home as late as 10 p.m. on the first day of the year.
Superintendent Marty Pollio said in a news conference Friday that the district will have an updated timeline for parents on Saturday "by the absolute latest."
"I believe, looking at it and the things that we need to implement with our bus drivers, it could be the middle of next week," he said. "That's what we are shooting for right now. We will have a final decision on that in the next 24 hours ..."
In a recorded video message early Thursday morning, Pollio called the Wednesday a "transportation disaster" Wednesday amid new bus routes and school start times. At 5:13 a.m. Thursday, JCPS parents got a text alert that said school would be canceled on Thursday, Aug. 10, and Friday, Aug. 11, an effort by the district to fix the issues.
Pollio said he believes the district will have "solutions in place" when students return to school.
"When we come back ... it's going to be much more efficient, and our communication will be much better with families and schools," he said.
Pollio said the issues were multi-faceted and complex, from the implementation of a new student assignment plan, brand new bus routes for a fleet of drivers already stretched thin and a new schedule of bus stops leaving kids unsure on where they need to be.
"The first day of school is extremely important," Pollio said Friday. "It's just shame it has to be overshadowed by the transportation problem that happened after school."
JCPS recently started using 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 600 beginning this year.
Jefferson County school board member Linda Duncan said she believes the district spent $265,000 for the AlphaRoute system. Pollio said representatives from AlphaRoute will be in town over the weekend to help JCPS work in implementing its plan.
Pollio called the new bus plan as well as all the new start times an "unprecedented" amount of change to start the year, reiterating that not as an excuse but to emphasize the hurdles the first day brought.
"We should have anticipated those problems better than we did," he said. "... Once again, I'll say that's on me and my team."
Currently, he said bus drivers get directions for their routes — many of which were brand new Wednesday — on pieces of paper telling them where to turn. Pollio said they're looking into getting GPS for drivers, though that's not a solution they can realistically implement soon.
John Stovall, president of the union that represents bus drivers for JCPS said he believes classes should be canceled through next week to help sort out the logistics. Stovall said he's heard frustration and anger from his drivers that were out as late as 10 p.m. Wednesday. He said the drivers had no input on the new routes, fearing they wouldn't make it in time.
"They're going from one end of town all the way to the other end of town all for one student," he said. "... This is not going to work. They feel like they've been set up for failure.
UPS offered its expertise in transportation and logistics Thursday morning to help JCPS sort out busing delays, UPS spokesman Jim Mayer said.
"We have had a conversation about whether it would be useful for us to offer help," Mayer told WDRB News.
Neither the company nor the school district was able to say whether any collaboration will materialize.
"We appreciate the strong community partnership we have with UPS and we are setting up a meeting with them," JCPS spokeswoman Carolyn Callahan said in an email.