What followed in Jefferson County Public Schools was more than a week of canceled classes as officials tried to figure out a solution to this logistical disaster. Mark Hebert, a spokesman for the district, attributed the crisis to two factors: a major shortage of drivers and an “implementation issue” with the AlphaRoute software that school leaders relied upon to create new, longer bus routes for this school district of 96,000 students that encompasses the city of Louisville.
According to its website, AlphaRoute’s school bus routing system can use artificial intelligence to make suggestions about how to modify routes, but Hebert said Thursday that company representatives had informed district leaders that AI had nothing to do with the problem because it wasn’t used in establishing Jefferson County’s routes. Company representatives from AlphaRoute did not respond to phone and email messages on Thursday.
Hebert said the district is still working with AlphaRoute to improve the situation, and since last week has made some gains. As of Wednesday, all buses were on track with the 7:40 a.m. and 9:40 a.m. pickup times. And following the high schools’ 4:20 p.m. dismissal time, the last student arrived home around 7 p.m., which is a long bus ride but better than getting home at 10 p.m.
“We’re improving,” Hebert said, “but compared to last year we still have fewer drivers, and some drivers are going on longer routes.”
At the start of the 2022-2023 academic year, the district had 650 drivers, or 50 more than this year, Hebert said. He added that the district, in conjunction with AlphaRoute, is hoping to refine most routes to be shorter and with fewer stops by mid-October. It is still possible that they could throw out the current bus schedule and establish all new routes, but a complete overhaul is undesirable right now, Hebert said.
In an Aug. 14 public statement, Jefferson County Public Schools Superintendent Marty Pollio announced that classes would resume for elementary and middle school students on Aug. 18, and for high school students on Aug. 21. In a news release, he cautioned that “families should still have realistic expectations as buses will likely still be running late on many routes as the nationwide bus-driver shortage has resulted in fewer bus drivers with longer routes.”
Short-term solutions to the transportation plan include:
- Shortening the length of routes that have a large number of stops.
- Providing tools that allow families to track bus locations before pickups and drop-offs.
- Authorizing bus and van drivers to bring younger students home or back to school if they don’t have an adult waiting for them at the stop.
- Deploying extra vans or buses to transport students who are late getting to their bus at the end of the school day.
- Adding staff members to buses with the longest routes who will assist with navigation and communication tasks should that bus run excessively late.
“We know our long-term solution will be to revamp bus routes; however, we need to create a temporary plan to ensure we can return to school safely now,” Superintendent Pollio said in the news release. “As we return, our operations team will continue working to create a permanent solution.”
