By revising a policy and changing start times for two buildings, Springfield Public Schools will be able to offer busing to 1,100 more students.
Currently, students in elementary, intermediate and K-8 schools have to live at least 1.5 miles from school to be eligible for busing.
The district wants to lower that to just 1 mile starting with the 2025-26 year.
"When we look at that many young students that are now going to become bus eligible, we think that's a huge win for those families and the district," said Travis Shaw, deputy superintendent of operations.
The change to policy EEA was proposed Tuesday to the school board, which is expected to vote on the change as early as Oct. 22. If approved, newly eligible families will be notified in the spring.
No eligibility change has been proposed for middle and high schools. Busing is offered to students who live 2.5 miles from those buildings.
Keith Adams, director of transportation, said slightly more than 10,000 students in SPS are eligible for busing and "and the number that ride is currently 7,973."
There are 3,920 students eligible for busing this year in elementary, intermediate and K-8 buildings. If the change is approved, eligibility in those grade spans will jump to 5,030.
The number of additional students who will be offered busing fluctuates by school. At four schools, the increase is significant: 96 more at Gray Elementary, 109 at Pershing, 120 at Bingham and 199 at Westport.
Limited busing eligibility has long been an issue in SPS and in 2020 and 2021, the Transportation Expansion work group was formed in an effort to expand busing in grades 9-12, where it was limited; and to "choice" or magnet, where it was nearly nonexistent.
More: Springfield's high school busing problem started in 1976. Here's why.
Recommendations were made but some of the proposed changes were cost-prohibitive and competition for bus drivers, which heated up during the pandemic, led to more modest changes than the district initially hoped.
For example, the work group wanted high school busing eligibility to start at 1.5 miles but the district set it at 2.5 miles during the 2022-23 year. It had originally been at 3.5 miles. The district has not yet been able to provide widespread busing for "choice" and magnet programs.
The biggest shift prompted by the work group was to school start times.
By dividing buildings into three tiers instead of two, the district was able to provide more busing without significantly increasing the number of buses and drivers.
Here are the start time and busing tiers this year :
- Tier I − 7:20 a.m. to 2:20 p.m. Boyd, Bingham, Cowden, Delaware, Disney, Field, Gray, Holland, Jeffries, Mann, McBride, McGregor, Rountree, Sequiota, Sherwood, Sunshine, Truman, Twain, Watkins, Weller, Wilder elementary schools; Wilson's Creek Intermediate; Hickory Hills and Westport K-8 schools; Academy of Exploration;
- Tier II − 8:10 a.m. and 3:10 p.m. Campbell, Fulbright, Shady Dell and Mallory early childhood centers; Bissett, Bowerman, Fremont, Harrison, Pittman, Weaver, Williams and York elementary schools; Central, Glendale, Hillcrest and Parkview high schools; and the WOLF, AgAcademy and Academy of Fine and Performing Arts programs;
- Tier III − 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Carver, Cherokee, Jarrett, Reed middle schools; Pershing and Pleasant View K-8 schools; Health Sciences Academy.
Shaw said the district has been committed to expanding busing in a sustainable manner. He said the service model has been sustainable, based on staffing and fleet size, and operate efficiently.
He said returning to a two-tiered busing and start time set-up is not an option at this time. To maintain the current busing eligibility level, the district would have to buy 38 more buses — with a one-time cost of $5.5 million — and increase labor and supply costs by 26%, or $2 million a year.
To combat the staffing issues, Shaw said the district improved pay and created a series of financial incentives in an effort to hire and keep enough bus drivers.
Adams said the the staffing level has improved but is not ideal. He'd still like to hire another 10-12 drivers.
"We're not fully staffed but we have 117 drivers currently for 105 routes so that puts us in a pretty comfortable spot," he said. "If you go back to this time last year, we had 111 routes and we only had 102 drivers so total night-and-day difference."
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In addition to routes to and from school, the district provides busing for roughly 4,000 field trips a year. "On our really busy days, it still gets tight but we do have a good group of (substitute) drivers that help out," Adams said.
As part of the proposal to expand busing eligibility for next year, the district wants to balance the number of routes in each busing and start time tier.
The proposal calls for the Westport K-8 school to start at 9 a.m. and for Sunshine to start at 8:10 a.m. Both start at 7:20 a.m. this year.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Proposal: SPS wants to expand busing next year to serve 1,100 more students
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