per day, or about 55 per tier, compared to only 115 or 120 (about 40 students per tier) that were previously maxed out last year. “We use routing software, but as someone who has sat at the forefront of routing and routing by hand, you could never remove the human function from routing and it’s not matter how fast or how digitized,” he explained. He continued, adding that the district’s routing soft-
ware performs the planning, and then transportation officials look at the route print outs and make correc- tions manually. The final strategy was focusing on an overall cost
reduction by developing a bus replacement plan. He explained that any school bus older than about five years was costing the district money to keep on the road. He said the key benefit to purchasing a new school bus was the five-year warranty, which in some cases can be ex- tended depending on location and manufacturer. He noted that like operating new personal vehicles, parts and equipment will need to be replaced regular- ly because of traditional wear and tear. But having an eight-year replacement plan keeps costs down when it comes to budgeting and parts maintenance. “If you’re running buses, you are going to spend more money on keeping those buses up on the road,” Rowls said, adding
that newer buses also offer more fuel-efficient engines. This is the first year that Flagler is beginning the
eight-year bus replacement plan. After buses run daily routes over that eight-year period, they will be assigned to the district’s spare fleet for the next four years. “At the 12-year mark, the bus will be removed from rotation and then placed for auction, depending upon the condition of the vehicle and position of the district at that time,” Rowls explained. “In a year’s time, we have reduced our fleet’s average age from 11 to nine years old. By the 2024- 2025 school year we will be in the full cycle. We also removed all non-air-conditioned buses from our fleet.” He added that he’s looking forward to seeing the final transportation costs for this school year, as the depart- ment is operating at full force, transporting about 6,000 students with a fully staffed stable of 68 regular bus driv- ers and substitutes, and implemented all the strategies to increase efficiency within the operations. “COVID taught us that we could do more with less, so
we’ve seen that in the operating budget,” he concluded. “And were still doing business, functioning at a high capacity.” ●
QUAL IT Y MAT TERS
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