Transportation and Bus Routes

Continuing our exploration of the 'Topics' newsletter this week, I want to spend a few moments with you discussing transportation to and from school. Before we get into the planning and development of our bus routes, I don't want to miss the opportunity to once again remind you of our parking plan for the coming school year. You can access information about that plan on the 'Parking 2023-2024' tab of our website. 

Now then, on to the bus routes! Because of significant enrollment growth over the last couple of years (and in this case I am speaking specifically of resident pupil enrollment), the structure and configuration of our bus routes is continually being evaluated. In the Twin Oaks addition for example, we had two students a year ago. This year we anticipate 10. White Tail went from 15 to 31, and my neighborhood alone has 63! This afternoon I took a 'road trip' through the district and the pace of construction and sheer volume of residential lots suggests that overall growth in our district will continue at a very rapid pace. We'll talk more about enrollment growth in a couple of weeks, but for the purposes of our discussion today I want to keep it 'in the lines' of transportation. 

Yesterday we spent some time with a handful of our drivers who are assigned the heavier student loads and, after some shifting of stops we think we're all set. Those bus routes with departure times will be posted during our K-12 open house on August 21. Even though we have routes largely set at this point, it is important to know that both route assignments and times will remain fluid over the curse of the first few weeks of the school year. It may be necessary to shift some stops to other buses depending on the load size of each route.

Here's part of the reason why. When constructing routes, we have to account for those who have registered and those who have not yet registered. There is a blend of  'they rode last year, so we assume they will ride this year', along with a side of  'I think this student will be driving to school this year'. Let's also not forget about who is participating in after school activities and may not be riding after school, but will need a ride to school. At the same time, we have to account for 'drop ins'. We just had some today that are new to our community. Is it art, or is it science?

Although school starts two weeks from today, registration continues. And each day that passes adds to those routes. Long story short: all our routes are full, save one. The route that runs south of town. Although a smaller load, it does encompass our largest geographic footprint. We are continually evaluating that route to see if/when we should add stops to that route while at the same time being mindful of how long our students are actually on the bus. 

If that weren't enough, we have the added complication of road construction this fall, and it is expected to last until the end of October. Over half of our routes run north out of our district. If you have had the pleasure of driving on Hudson Road lately, you are aware of the road construction and pilot car. We expect that will impact pickup and drop off times both to and from school. If that weren't enough, there is also construction on Butterfield Road, north of Ranchero. This will impact our timing to the Twin Oaks addition. 

So a couple of takeaways today. If you haven't registered yet, please do so! And the second, is that we ask for continued grace and flexibility during the first part of the school year.