Kentucky

Kentucky school district rushes to fix bus route snarl that canceled classes and outraged parents

Published

1 year ago

August 12, 2023

Kentucky school district rushes to fix bus route snarl that canceled classes and outraged parents

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — An overly-ambitious redesign of bus routes for Louisville’s school district turned into a logistical meltdown on the first day of classes, forcing schools to close as administrators said Friday that students might stay home for part of next week until the mess is untangled.

Parents were fuming and some state politicians pressed for changes in the sprawling urban district after some of the 96,000 students didn’t get picked up on Wednesday for school in the morning or came home hours late — with some arriving after dark.

“They had all summer to get this figured out and they couldn’t figure it out,” said Berkley Collins, a mother of two students in Jefferson County Public Schools.

Another appalled parent, Beau Kilpatrick, said one of his young daughters was covered in urine when she finally arrived home at 9:15 p.m. He called it a “complete failure” by the district.

“They were hungry,” he said of his two elementary-age kids. “They were thirsty. They couldn’t use the bathroom. They were scared because they just wanted to get home.”

On a day that started with so much excitement for the start of a new school year, his children arrived home heartbroken, Kilpatrick said. He was heartbroken, too.

After just one disastrous day, Kentucky’s largest district is reexamining the bus routing system designed by AlphaRoute, a Massachusetts-based consulting company that uses computer algorithms to map out courses and stops.

It could take until the middle of next week to resolve the problems enough to resume classes, Superintendent Marty Pollio said Friday, promising to give parents plenty of notice before Monday.

“I said it from the very beginning, I take responsibility for it myself,” Pollio said at a news conference, repeating his earlier apology to families, bus drivers and school staff.

He said the district should have anticipated that the new plan didn’t leave enough time for busses to get from stop to stop, especially on the first day of school when delays are bound to happen.

The overhaul was intended to solve a basic math problem for the district: Last school year, it didn’t have enough drivers to cover all the routes. As a result, thousands of kids missed considerable amounts of instructional time as some drivers made double and triple runs.

The redesigned plan shrunk the number of bus routes in response to that driver shortage.

Pollio said the district will have to stick with the new plan, which he admitted “isn’t perfect.”

“But it’s going to be much more efficient, and our communication will be much better with families and schools,” he said. “We want to make sure we get that right before we put the kids back on a school bus again.”

The district has 65,000 bus riders, according to its website.

In assessing fault for the opening day fiasco, the superintendent said he’s “not going to put it on the company,” referring to AlphaRoute, adding that it was more a problem with implementation.

Pollio also emphasized that he wasn’t blaming bus drivers, and district officials have acknowledged the system faced a “big learning curve” in carrying out the new plan. Leading up to the start of the school year, bus drivers had several days to practice their routes, and they continued making practice runs Thursday and Friday.

AlphaRoute said in a statement that the “full range of root causes” for the problems weren’t yet clear.

“We recognize that the situation was extremely regrettable and likely caused by the significant changes to bus routing,” the company said. “Combined with their new school assignment model, this is a substantial amount of change.”

Tiesha Calbert experienced the problems both as a parent and as the director of a child care center.

She says the district moved a school bus stop that was right in front of the center. Now there are multiple stops between 1 block and 2 1/2 blocks away. A special needs child waited over 3 hours for a bus that never came, she said.

Calbert said she’s required by the state to sign the kids out, but she doesn’t have enough people to follow them to their bus stops and wait with them.

“I have to figure out what we’re going to do,” she said. “I’m not going to let these kids go back out and just be wandering around for hours.”

A group of state lawmakers representing Jefferson County districts called Wednesday’s chaos “the last straw,” saying the debacle “must be the catalyst for change” in the school system.

The lawmakers signaled they will push for legislation ensuring that students have the right to attend their neighborhood schools. They called for a commission to evaluate splitting up the school system, contending that the district currently is “too big to properly manage.” They also called for changes to the local school board.

Many other districts across the country are experiencing similar bus driver shortages.

A survey of school system leaders taken between October and December 2022 found staffing shortages were not as severe compared to the fall of 2021, but many reported trouble finding enough substitute teachers, special education teachers and bus drivers. In the American School District Panel Survey, 45% of district leaders reported a “considerable shortage” of bus drivers.

Columbus City Schools in Ohio experienced its own upheaval in 2022 that led to mid-school year changes in its transportation plan, which it blamed on its own driver shortage as well as issues with a new software system. The district had a contract with AlphaRoute for software, the Columbus Dispatch reported.

___

Loller reported from Nashville, Tennessee.

Source link

Related Topics:Featured kentucky school bus

Click to comment

Kentucky

Two Former Kentucky Wildcats Transfer to Power Five Programs

Published

6 hours ago

December 23, 2024

Press Room

Two Former Kentucky Wildcats Transfer to Power Five Programs

The recruiting dead period begins at midnight. That means players in the transfer portal cannot visit campuses until Jan. 1. It’s a mad dash to secure a spot and a few former Kentucky Wildcats found a new home in the Power Five ranks.

Former four-star talent Tyreese Fearbry is heading to Camp Randall to Jump Around with the Wisconsin Badgers. The Pittsburgh native has two years of eligibility remaining.

The decorated recruit had plenty of promise, but that never turned into production. In three years and over 350 defensive snaps, he recorded 21 tackles, one tackle for loss, two pass breakups, and 21 pressures. His best performance came against Clemson in the Gator Bowl to end the 2023 season when the edge rusher logged a career-high five pressures.

Feary was one of three departures from Brad White’s position room. Kentucky ended the live period by hosting a couple of EDGE players, Chris Murray and Kameron Olds.

Kentucky also lost three tight ends this offseason. Khamari Anderson revealed he will be joining a CFP team next fall. He’s putting his forks up to play for Kenny Dillingham at Arizona State. The former Under Armour All-American also visited Auburn during the process. I can’t blame the Detroit native for moving to the desert instead.

He had six receptions for 40 yards during his two seasons in Lexington. Kentucky received a commitment from Illinois tight end Henry Boyer to add size and depth to Vince Marrow’s tight end position room. For those keeping tally at home, nine of the 21 departing Kentucky football transfers have landed in the Power Conference ranks, and that number will likely grow.

The transfer portal is open for business and so far we know of 21 players who will be seeking out greener pastures this offseason.

DL Keeshawn Silver (Committed to USC on Dec. 19)
DB Avery Stuart
LB Jayvant Brown
TE Tanner Lemaster
TE Khamari Anderson (Committed to Arizona State Dec. 22)
TE Jordan Dingle (Committed to South Carolina on Dec. 18)
OL Courtland Ford (Committed to UCLA on Dec. 17)
OL Ben Christman
OL Dylan Ray (Committed to Minnesota on Dec. 21)
OL Koby Keenum (Committed to Mississippi State on Dec. 22)
DL Tommy Ziesmer (Committed to EKU on Dec. 15)
WR Dane Key
WR Barion Brown (Committed to LSU on Dec. 14)
WR Anthony Brown-Stephens
WR Brandon White
EDGE Tyreese Fearbry (Committed to Wisconsin Dec. 22)
EDGE Noah Matthews
EDGE Caleb Redd (Committed to Kansas on Dec. 20)
RB Chip Trayanum
QB Gavin Wimsatt
LS Walker Himebach (Committed to Colorado State on Dec. 22)

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. Keep closer tabs on the Cats with our staff-only sticky thread on KSBoard, which will have updates on departures and targets throughout the offseason. Not a KSR+ member? Try it out today.

Source link

Kentucky

Mark Pope says Kentucky will fight to get better after loss to Ohio State

Published

14 hours ago

December 22, 2024

Press Room

Mark Pope says Kentucky will fight to get better after loss to Ohio State

Kentucky suffered an upset loss to Ohio State on Saturday in the CBS Sports Classic in Madison Square Garden, losing 85-65. Nothing went their way in the game, as shooting struggles and physicality were major factors. The Buckeyes attacked the basket at will, and Kentucky couldn’t find any answers. Kentucky shot 30% overall and 18% from three-point range.

Mark Pope knows his team is going to work hard to try and respond well to the loss, and after the holiday break, the Wildcats will get back in the gym and strive to get better. The Wildcats seemed to lose focus on making plays for each other, and Pope talked about that after the loss.

“I know exactly how these guys will respond. They’re gonna really, really try as hard as they can to not let this destroy their couple of days off. Their job is to get really fresh right now, and then we get back together on the 26th. I know these guys. They’ll come in and it’s not gonna be just empty emotion, it’s gonna be we’re gonna get better, and these guys will get better. We just gotta keep trusting what we do. We had some defensive struggles tonight, and we just fell to pieces offensively. We just went to our default, and our default is not right yet. Our default is still bad habits. It’s not habits coming from a bad place in the guys’ hearts, it’s coming from a great place. It’s coming from a desperation to help their team, but we don’t do that by ourselves. We do it disciplined, and we do it the way we do it, and we do it by making plays for each other.”
– Pope on Kentucky responding.

With a 10-day break between games, Kentucky has some time to regroup and work to improve in those areas, especially before they begin SEC play on January 4 against Florida. Physicality should be a focal point of improvement with how physical the SEC always is.

Source link

Kentucky

Sunday Headlines: Cats suffer brutal defeat vs. Ohio State

Published

22 hours ago

December 22, 2024

Press Room

Sunday Headlines: Cats suffer brutal defeat vs. Ohio State

Good morning BBN!

This is the first time we have had to write a headline post following a very disappointing loss, but here we are.

The Kentucky Wildcats tossed their first dud of the Mark Pope Era in Madison Square Garden, as the Cats got blitzed by the Ohio State Buckeyes.

It was not the prettiest performance from the Cats this season on either end of the floor. The Buckeyes cruised on offense shooting close to 60% from the field.

On the flip side, Kentucky really struggled to get rolling on offense as they shot 29.8% from the field.

Despite an impressive resume, there is no way around this loss stinging some, especially after Auburn crushed this same Buckeyes team by 40+ points.

One non-conference game remains as the Cats return to Rupp Arena on New Year’s Eve when they host Brown.

This team clearly has a lot of work to do until then to

Tweet of the Day

I’ve logged a pick for Kent State EDGE Kam Olds to land at Kentucky.
He had 42 tackles, 6 sacks and an interception this season. https://t.co/VxSGJEUisH pic.twitter.com/qKuNk04RMQ
Advertisement

— Pete Nakos (@PeteNakos_) December 22, 2024