![]() Wondering if their children will be stranded on a sidewalk.Īnne Arundel County Public Schools (AACPS) addressed the national bus driver shortage at a September Board of Education meeting. ![]() This could improve communications with parents, which has been another challenge for the division in relation to student transportation.By Zach Sparks morning, parents wake up and wonder if they will get a text or email notifying them about a bus delay. Students scan the badge as they get on and off the bus. The new facility will also address space limitations and allow the hiring of additional transportation staff.Īdditionally, a new ID badge system is being piloted at Norfolk Highlands Primary. Other changes to the department include a new transportation facility expected to open this fall, which will add bays that can be used for preventative maintenance for the division’s nearly 600 buses. The administration will bring a recommendation to the board at a later meeting. “We do know that there will be a lot of changes that will be put in place for several schools, and it will not be necessarily well-received, depending on where you land on this,” he said about the proposed changes.īoard members agreed that the zones should be re-examined, but said administrators must keep in mind there may need to be some flexibility to address challenges unique to individual schools. “This was the last item that we were going to tackle,” Cotton said, regarding the non-transportation zones. The division also centralized bus parking, and computerized the dispatch board. Among the efficiency improvements were changes to start and stop times and increasing the distance students have to walk to bus stops. The driver shortage has meant drivers have to double-up routes or double back and run a second route to get students to school.Ĭotton noted that the division already implemented several changes to transportation over the past few years. The new zones are expected to improve bus efficiency and result in more students arriving to school on time. Currently, about 800 students live in a secondary non-transportation zone. At the secondary level, nine schools would be affected, adding about 550 students to the non-transportation zone. Currently, only 329 students live in elementary non-transportation zones. Under the draft criteria, the zones for 24 elementary schools would be affected, adding about 1,100 students to a non-transportation zone. The criteria would take into account boundaries such as creeks and wooded lots, as well as railroad crossings and high-volume roads. The new criteria, which are not final, call for students at primary and elementary schools not to have to walk farther than a mile to school, and for middle and high school students not to travel farther than 1.5 miles. The department worked with the city’s traffic engineers, representatives from the police department and a Safe Routes to School coordinator to develop criteria for the zones. ![]() Superintendent Jared Cotton tasked the transportation department with developing criteria for establishing non-transportation zones to create consistency across schools. Benson said many of the zones have not been changed in more than 20 years. In Chesapeake, the number of driver vacancies has ballooned from 13 just five years ago to more than 90 today.Ī non-transportation zone, sometimes referred to as a walking zone, is the area close enough to a school where students are expected to reach the school on their own or with a parent.ĭuring a School Board planning meeting Tuesday, Director of Transportation David Benson said there is no consistency in how these zones are defined, resulting in inequities for families. The division has faced transportation challenges for years, due in large part to an extreme nationwide bus driver shortage. The changes could affect hundreds of students. Chesapeake Public Schools is considering re-defining “non-transportation zones” to make bus routes more efficient.
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