Schools see improvements with condensing bus routes
WESTPORT — School officials have seen improvements with the district’s transportation issues after recently condensing the number of bus routes at each school.
Officials said the district has struggled to get students to school on time since the start of the year due to a number of issues, including increased traffic, bus delays and a shortage of bus drivers. A few weeks ago, the district announced it would reduce the number of bus routes from 57 to 51.
Superintendent Thomas Scarice said condensing the routes has helped get most of the buses back on time and, despite some struggles remaining, he is “encouraged” by the progression.
“We have seen some improvements along the way so far,” Scarice said at a recent school board meeting.
“It seems to be the bus at each school with the biggest ridership seems to be arriving last out of all the buses because of all of the stops,” he added. “It is tightening up though.”
Scarice’s transportation report focused on the performance at the elementary schools.
He said buses are getting to Saugatuck Elementary School on time. Buses dropping off at Long Lots Elementary School are also running smoothly, arriving between 8:40 and 9 a.m. Kings Highway Elementary School and Coleytown Elementary School are down to just one bus that still presents a challenge, however, the one bus at Kings Highway is arriving on time most days.
“The challenge is that it’s a combined route, it’s a long route and a lot of kids are riding it,” Scarice said.
He added that the busing at Green Farms Elementary School has also improved their pick up and arrival times since condensing the routes.
Scarice reminded the board that making sure pick ups at the bus stop and school were on time was the district’s main focus for the first phase.
The bus issue started as concerns about drop off times at the elementary level, but that gradually evolved to impact all levels. This prompted the district to look for solutions to help the problem, which included condensing the busing routes to fix the reliability and consistency problems.
The lack of drivers from Dattco, Westport’s transportation provider, also forced Westport’s hand in order to meet the district’s standards. Officials said Dattco lost nine drivers, a dispatcher and the operations supervisor, which led the company to reallocate staff from other locations to Westport.
The condensed routes required six fewer drivers, however, Scarice said 14 drivers are currently in the queue to come to Westport.
He said that after speaking with the division director of the Department of Motor Vehicles, the director asked for the names of those drivers and shared that he is going to see if he can accelerate them through the process. Scarice said he found the conversation “promising.”
“If we get the bus drivers online as soon as possible, we’re going to see a huge improvement,” Scarice said.
Scarice previously said once a full roster of drivers are stabilized, the school will consider returning to the original routes. But that is not expected to happen for months.