The wheels on the bus ...
School bus ridership on the rise in OKC?
Oklahoma City school buses could be fuller than ever this school year as classes begin on Monday.
Oklahoma City Public Schools is preparing for increased bus ridership after district restructuring directed thousands of students to new schools.
“Last year we transported right around 7,000 students a day. I expect that definitely to rise,” Transportation Director Scott Lane said. “There definitely are some students that are going to be on the bus that haven't been before, some areas that we're going to be picking up students in that we haven't before.”
School closings andre locations will increase daily travel time for many students, particularly those in neighborhoods where nearby schools shut down. The district is adding five to 10 more
bus routes to accommodate a growing need f or school transportation.
As plans are finalized, between 115 and 120 routes will stretch across the Oklahoma City district. School consolidations affected each of the 110 routes that existed last year.
“If I'm a walker last year, I could walk four blocks to school, and now I've got to get on a bus and travel three quarters of a mile,” Superintendent Sean McDaniel said. “It just changes the dynamic, and so there's a period of adjustment that our families are going to have to go through.”
Busing zones also expanded for application schools, which accept students based on academic qualification, not by geographic boundaries. Buses will pick up students bound for Belle Isle Enterprise School if they live north of NE/NW 50 Street in northwest and northeast Oklahoma City.
Classen School of Advanced Studies, both the middle and high school, can have students picked up between NE/NW 50 Street and Reno Avenue. Buses will pick up students attending Southeast Middle and High School if they live south of Reno Avenue.
Students must live more than a mile and a half away from their school to qualify for bus pickup.
The district transportation department reworked its route patterns with a new computer system that interfaced with student data. Mapping routes based on student information should result in a more efficient bus system, Lane said.
Forty-six new buses will roll out for the first pickups of the school year at 6 a.m. Monday. The district replaced nearly a third of its 150-bus fleet to cycle out older buses in poor condition.
A $180 million bond package that voters passed in 2016 financed the bus purchases, among other initiatives for Oklahoma City schools.
“We never had a better fleet than we have now,” said Lane, who has been with the district for 10 years. “This is the best we've ever been.”
For the first time, all of t he district's school buses will have air conditioning. Administrators said this addition will protect student health and safety in hot conditions.
“If I could wear a T-shirt that said, `Our buses have A/C,' I would because it is that important,” Deputy Superintendent Jason Brown said. “We transport quite a few students, and we feel like our buses and our transportation system is an extension of our classroom.”
This marks a rapid upgrade from three years ago, when none of the district's large, traditional buses had air conditioning, Lane said. All the new buses contain three interior surveillance cameras, as well.
The district is still trying to build a foundation of newer buses in a fleet that quickly racks up miles. Lane said Oklahoma City school buses travel about 2.5 million miles over a single school year.
The transportation department al so has emphasized hiring personnel this summer. Though s ome veteran bus drivers stay with the district for decades, others leave their positions year-to-year.
Lane said he expected the district to employ about 117 bus drivers by the first day of school, but the department's goal is to hire 140.
“It doesn't matter how many drivers you have, you never have enough,” Lane said. “We have a lot of veteran people, but still there are people that do leave. There's life changes. The big thing that we've been doing this summer is we've been hiring people.”