Short-term Growth? Students who have moved into the district —
temporary or permanently — due to a natural disaster affects transportation the same, if not more so than traditional enrollment growth from new housing developments. The fires that devastated parts of Southern California in January, for example, left many students and their families without homes, requiring them to move into nearby districts. To make mat- ters more challenging, some of these students have disabilities. This is the experience of Santa Monica-Mal-
ibu Unified School District, said interim Transportation Director Steven Carrillo. He ex- plained that many students previously served by the Los Angeles Unified School District, moved into his district boundaries, primarily in the Calabasas area. Santa Monica-Malibu created an extra school bus stop as a result. Plus, some students who attended and lived
in Santa Monica are now attending schools closer to Malibu, which is normally about 22 miles to the northwest. But the fires closed a large section of Pacific Coast Highway, forcing a detour that can be three-times longer. Carrillo said transportation had to rearrange and add routes to ensure no student was getting left behind. Not to mention, Carrillo said some bus stop locations were destroyed by fire. He said after driving various routes through the Santa Monica and Malibu areas, staff had to create new safer bus stop locations. Because the school district fleet of school buses were already at capacity and could not purchase new buses to handle the influx of students, it leaned on its alternative trans- portation partners Pawar Transportation and HopSkipDrive, to help with transporting select students with special needs. “I had the opportunity to drive down PCH
to make sure the stops that were created were in a safe place… This scene was very, very sad,” recalled Carrillo, a 27-year veteran of the district with strong ties to the community and the stu- dents. “I hate to use this word, but it was a scene of like a war zone … it was very devastating.”
Canton City’s new break/training room can hold up to 170 employees.
conduct maintenance, repairs and quality checks on the bus- es. It features an expanded parking lot and new fuel stations, which Hoover said will allow eight buses to fill up at a time, compared to two or three. The new facility will also give drivers their own lounge,
which fosters a better connection with the entire team. Additionally, the building will have more restrooms. Previ- ously, Hoover noted there was only one male and one female restroom. “When you have that many drivers coming in to have a
restroom break, now they’re not having to wait in line to go to restrooms,” he shared, adding that the project is almost completed after about two years. Canton City also recently completed a new training center to address the growth. Transportation had about 110 full-time employees at this report, but the training center can hold up to 170. The district also pays for new applicants to obtain their commercial driver’s license. Ramm added that Forney ISD is also in the process of
building a new transportation center. It will have increased parking spaces for the district’s fleet as well as employees, plus additional office and meeting spaces. It’s expected to open next year. Prosper ISD is also faced with challenges of limited space at
its transportation center. Mapengo said she needs more park- ing to accommodate the increasing number of vehicles. She added the district will be receiving additional office space. “However, one issue that continues to arise is the lack of space for training with our entire staff at our transportation locations,” she explained. “As a result, we have had to use external locations for these training sessions, which can be inconvenient and sometimes space is not available, but we make do with what we have.” ●
52 School Transportation News • MARCH 2025
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