GOING ROUND AND ROUND
City schools’ transportation plan faces bumpy road to approval.
Pittsburgh Public Schools officials say they have a plan in place that will allow them to provide transportation to all students who need it by the first day of class, but it will depend on a series of proposals and agreements being approved by multiple voting bodies over the next two weeks.
And if any part of the plan does not move forward, thousands of students may be left without a ride on the first day of school.
The transportation issues stem from a bus driver shortage that was severely exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The district’s plan includes delaying the first day of school, tiering school start and end times to maximize use of buses, placing more students on Port Authority buses and increasing walk zones around schools.
“This is the most efficient and effective way to get all of the students we can to school five days a week,” Megan Patton, the district’s director of pupil transportation, said Friday during an interview at the A-1 Transit school bus garage in Lawrenceville.
All of those proposals, however, are out of district administration’s control.
The first step in the plan could come Wednesday night during a special legislative session of the city school board when members will vote on moving back the first day of school by two weeks, from Aug. 25 to Sept. 8.
District administrators said the move would give school bus companies time to bring on about 100 new bus drivers who could transport students in the city. Parents have rallied against pushing back the start date, arguing that the district should have addressed the transportation issues sooner and fearing that there could be further delays to schools
reopening.
If the school board OKs moving the first day of school, then the district’s attention will turn toward the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers.
The union’s members will vote Aug. 23 on a new contract agreement with the district. The contract includes the changing of school start and end times, which would allow the district to tier its transportation schedule and allow bus drivers to run three routes in the morning and afternoon instead of just two. Ms. Patton said the tiered bus schedule would allow the district to transport about 5,000 more students to school each day.
Nina Espostio-Visgitis, the PFT president, called the recent negotiations one of the “most difficult” she had ever been involved in and said the union battled the changes to school start and end times, but the district refused to relent.
If the union ratifies the contract, it will go before the school board at a meeting on the evening of Aug. 25 for final approval.
The district’s transportation plan could be finalized that night if the school board approves the teachers union contract and passes several other measures, including moving more students to Port Authority buses and adding two new transportation carriers.
The district will also launch a campaign encouraging families to provide transportation to their own children if possible.
Ms. Patton said that if any part of the plan fails to materialize, the district will not be able to guarantee transportation for all students and will be forced to prioritize bus seats starting with the youngest and most vulnerable children.
District officials will hold a webinar at 10:30 a.m. Monday to explain their plan to the public. The public will also have the ability to comment on the possible calendar changes at a hearing before the school board Monday evening.
Meanwhile. the district said it continues to push its carriers to recruit more drivers by offering incentives.
Cori Skellie, the chief operations officer of A-1 Transit, said her company is offering a free CDL license class and signing bonuses in an attempt to bring in more drivers.
Still, she said, A-1 Transit is down to about 35 drivers this year compared to 75 drivers just a few years ago.
Because of the challenges finding drivers, Ms. Skellie said, everyone who works for the company is driving buses — even her.
“Everybody’s on the road,” she said. “Everybody.”