Hello Bear Families,
I'm reaching out today to update you on our transportation plans for the 2024-2025 school year. After careful consideration and analysis, we've decided to maintain our current three-tier busing system rather than moving to the previously announced two-tier system.
We initially planned to combine middle and high school routes to address the ongoing bus driver shortage. However, after routing students based on opt-out responses from our families, we found that buses would be significantly over capacity in many cases.
While we know not all routed students will ride regularly, we can't predict exactly which students on which routes will or won't use the bus. This uncertainty creates a risk of overcrowding that we're not comfortable taking.
School times will remain what they have been. The elementary was staying the same regardless, but the middle school will now go back to 8 a.m. start time and 3 p.m. end time and the high school will be a 7:20 a.m. start time and a 2:20 p.m. end time.
By keeping our three-tier system, we can continue to offer transportation to all students who need it. However, I want to be transparent about the challenges we may face:
1. We have just enough drivers to cover our routes, with little flexibility for absences.
2. On days when we're short-staffed, we may need to split or adjust routes.
3. This may result in some delays or changes to pick-up and drop-off times on those days.
I understand you may have questions about this decision, so I'd like to address some key points:
Why wasn't the three-tier system the plan all along? The three-tier system was very difficult to implement last year, and we will have less staff this year. We will need to make significant changes to some routes and be extremely creative on days we are short-staffed. This is not optimal and would never be our first choice if we had an approach allowing more flexibility with staffing. Until recently, we thought the two-tier system would provide that flexibility. We opted to try everything we could to keep transportation available for everyone who needs it, rather than taking the easier route of eliminating some of our busing services.
Will this change again? No. At this point, we have no other choice than to route the students and move ahead to start the school year. While this has been a fluid process, we are out of time if we want to complete the routing in time for school.
Why didn't we see this coming earlier? The numbers we were looking at based on ridership were clear. However, the opt-out numbers did not come in at the rate we expected based on what we see daily at the high school. We could not have foreseen this until the actual process of routing and balancing routes took place, which is why we just discovered the numbers issue.
We are committed to providing the best possible service while ensuring safety. Throughout the year, we'll continue working to recruit and retain more drivers to improve our flexibility.
I want to thank our dedicated transportation team for their hard work in solving this complex puzzle. We appreciate your understanding and patience as we navigate these challenges together.
Thank you for your continued support of our schools and our students.
Sincerely,
Michael Laub
Superintendent
North Royalton City Schools