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Study finds routes, data and staff changes could cut bus runs; board to review staffing plan
Summary
An independent study recommended routing, data and staffing changes that could reduce routes and shift contracted trips back to district buses; the board asked staff to propose a staffing plan and phased implementation.
An independent transportation efficiency study presented to the Berkeley County Board of Education on May 19 concluded the district could reduce routes and increase operational efficiency by consolidating routing data, adjusting bell times and adding dedicated routing staff. Consultants from Edulog and partners described data problems that have inflated assigned loads, undercounted actual ridership and left many yellow‑bus routes operating below expected capacity.
"When we looked at the runs ... by allowing some multischooling, we were able to take 10 buses off the road," consultant Spencer Jenko said during the presentation of a Spring Mills complex sample. Program lead Derek Graham and Edulog advisers urged bringing special education routing into a single routing database and creating one or more dedicated routing positions so the district can more effectively update runs and respond to midyear ridership changes.
The study identified several drivers of inefficiency: separate routing databases for general and special education, inconsistent ridership tracking (the consultants found headcounts on the road averaging roughly 64% of assigned loads in sampled observations), contracted transportation costs (Epic and Varsity Travel) that are higher per student than district buses, and an afternoon bell‑time squeeze that compresses bus activity into a short window. Consultants recommended phased consolidation of routes, removal of students from assignments after sustained non‑ridership, combined runs where feasible and targeted staffing increases dedicated to routing and data management.
Board members welcomed the report and asked administration to return with a staffing proposal. "There needs to be a position identified to focus on routing students," consultant Derek Graham said; the board directed staff to draft a recommended organizational structure and any position descriptions for review. Superintendent Sachs said the district would work with Edulog and the transportation office to identify the number and type of routing positions needed and to develop a phased timeline for applying route consolidations that respect state rules and staffing cycles.
No immediate staffing hires or route eliminations were authorized at the meeting; the board asked for a staffing plan and an implementation roadmap to appear at the June 2 board workshop. The study’s authors noted that full optimization will require building capacity and redundancy in routing staff, better data hygiene (including moving special‑education routes into the central routing platform) and careful stakeholder engagement with drivers and schools to avoid disruptive, rapid changes.
