The first day of school this year turned into such a disaster for one Kentucky district that they had to shut back down again. Their transportation company thought they could cut routing corners. Confused kids were driven around aimlessly all afternoon while panicked parents were left in the dark.
Back to school chaos
The largest school system in the entire state of Kentucky was forced to close the whole district Thursday and Friday. That’s because the first day of class on Wednesday, August 9, resulted in a “transportation disaster.”
The governor is almost ready to call a state of emergency over it. They may need to send in the National Guard to act as bus drivers by Monday. Update: School closed Monday and Tuesday also…
Jefferson County Public Schools Superintendent Marty Pollio issued a video apology after some children were left on buses “until just before 10 p.m.” The first day chaos ruined the plans of 96,000 students and their families.
Nearly 100,000 students are affected by Kentucky's largest school system's bus shortage. The Jefferson County Public Schools superintendent says classes have been cancelled until likely next week when the issue can be resolved. pic.twitter.com/agP6DK22qM
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 12, 2023
Bus drivers and district officials didn’t have such a great day either. He’s heartbroken. Pollio assured families “that canceling day two and day three of school was the hardest decision of his superintendent career.”
“I saw some incredible instruction. Kids excited, families excited, new school buildings, and to have it end with the transportation disaster that we had last night was truly unacceptable.”
“And once again,” he groveled on Facebook, “I apologize for that.” Please don’t fire me, he didn’t add.
Not the usual delays
Pollio admits that JCPS “always experiences delays in transportation during the first days.” Nobody has ever seen anything like what happened this time and it “is unacceptable.”
He and his colleagues “acknowledge that the delays and frustrations felt by families were worse than in years past as bus drivers, families, students and school staff all worked to navigate a brand new transportation plan.” New and improved isn’t always a good thing.
It looked great on paper but “families waited for hours,” Pollio acknowledges, “for their children to return home after dismissal, and that as of 9:58 p.m. Wednesday, bus riders had not been dropped off.” Kids who should have been in bed by then hadn’t even had dinner.
Following significant transportation issues for Jefferson County Public Schools on its first day of school, community members sent Letters to the Editor to The Courier Journal expressing their disappointment and dismay. Here are a few of those letters. https://t.co/V04SMm6kHs
— Courier Journal (@courierjournal) August 10, 2023
“We will be working diligently to make adjustments with the goal of reducing bus wait times and ensuring every child who needs one has a safe ride to and from school.” Frustrated parents ended up calling 911 to report their kids as kidnapped. “The children, however, were found prior to the report-taking process.”
It seems the problem tracks back to the progressive “engineering firm” AlphaRoute. They design “transportation solutions.” This solution was the wrong answer, proving the value of common core math.
They’re working real hard to figure out how they got the kids to school on time, then lost them on the way home. They haven’t got a clue and whine they’re working “diligently to resolve the issues it experienced,” and claim “it is not clear” what the “full range of root causes were for those issues.” They screwed up is the root cause.
