“And if they can’t, you have to move things around to
the point where they can get things done on time,” Saw- yer added. “Sometimes you have to add some buses back or reduce more. We have been working on that process now since probably late September, looking at what we thought we could save, and we expected to save from 60 to 65 drivers.” Sawyer said he transports about half of the district’s
total enrollment of 81,700 students over 421 bus routes. Most buses serve three schools, though the longer routes only serve two schools. “The bell times for every school changed, so even the kids who walk to school are impacted,” he noted. “We backed up some schools by 20 minutes and some schools about 30 minutes to get everything done. Every- body still has the same [instructional] minutes in their school day, which has not changed, just the start times. “We believe that this will allow us to move back to con-
sistent route times and that students will arrive at school on time, which is the most important part of our job,” he continued, adding that it’s not to say the buses will never be late again. “But when you’re consistently late with a lot
of buses it’s just poor service. So that is the goal. Is there any of us that truly like this plan? No, we don’t. But I’m not going to see 80 drivers drop out of the sky any time soon either. And I don’t know of any other plan that would get students to school on time. That’s the bottom line.” Sawyer said the school board has approved the
four-tier plan for the remainder of the school year. The issue will be revisited in May. “We may move some bell times around or they may
say it’s time to go back to three tiers. That’s the school board’s decision,” he said. “The goal as of now is to re- turn to the three-tier system at some point, we just don’t know when we can do that.” Sawyer further acknowledged that changing bell times is a difficult task at best when initiated during the summer with adequate lead time, but to do it during the school year was especially ambitious. “It would be disruptive anytime you do it, but the
perception is that it is especially disruptive in the middle of the school year,” Sawyer admitted. “For us to do this and reroute the county was a mammoth undertaking because staff had their regular jobs to do in addition
A smarter way to solve your driver shortage, optimize your bell times, and much more...
- Rob Weinheimer, Director of Transportation, Columbus City Schools, Ohio
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