District leaders told the Hopkins School Board on Oct. 21 that a transportation redesign prompted by a spring audit successfully routed roughly 3,900 students before the first day of school but also produced notable implementation problems, including a missed August 15 communication to families identified in newly expanded “no‑bus” zones.

Superintendent Mary Pirie Reid summarized the presentation to the board, saying the team framed the review around “what we intended to do, what actually happened, and what we wish had happened,” and that leaders have already started an after‑action review to capture lessons for the coming year.

The district moved to follow three main recommendations from an outside audit: return to a three‑tier bell schedule, expand “no‑bus” (walk) zones to a consistent 1‑mile elementary/2‑mile secondary standard, and avoid adding extra bus routes simply to preserve old practices. Assistant Director of Transportation Williams and colleagues said that work required new route maps, a combined opt‑in survey and a new routing platform.

Officials acknowledged several specific failures. They said an August 15 deadline for notifying families in the newly expanded no‑bus zones was missed, and that some families who attempted to decline service did not complete the final survey step that confirmed the opt‑out. On that point, staff said they erred on the side of caution and routed some families who later said they did not need busing, which created tensions and perceptions that seats were being used unnecessarily.

Assistant Director Williams provided numeric context: the district routed about 3,900 students for the start of school and, by mid‑October, had routed about 4,209 students after adjustments. Schools reported varied impacts by site; for example, the number of students in the new no‑bus zone rose at several elementary sites compared with last year’s walk‑zone counts. Williams also walked the board through typical route profiles — low‑density routes that take long to drive and high‑density apartment routes that reach capacity quickly — and explained constraints such as bus capacity (elementary capacity ≈64; secondary ≈54) and turnaround time limits.

Transportation staff described how mapping required careful geographic data work. A district mapping specialist said national census road data used by some systems omitted or mislocated key local roads; staff worked with Hennepin County and the state to correct the maps used for routing. Jolene, who worked on the opt‑in survey, told the board the combined survey was complex and that limited testing time reduced the team’s ability to find cases where families mistakenly left the survey incomplete.

Board members pressed for specifics about missed communication and community outreach. Several trustees asked whether the district could have postponed the change to buy more time for testing; administrators said the changes aimed to close a multi‑million dollar budget gap and that transportation offered one of the more immediate opportunities to realize savings. The superintendent and staff said they would provide a fuller, written after‑action report in November and that they will share an updated public FAQ and responses to board questions by e‑mail.

Among the practical fixes the team outlined: (1) a policy review to clarify definitions such as “extraordinary hazard area,” (2) continuing ridership audits to open additional seats as possible, (3) building an integrated fee‑collection mechanism into the student information system, and (4) exploring routing efficiencies for activity buses and special‑education transports. Staff also said they would pursue stronger partnerships with Metro Transit for some secondary riders and improve coordination with school‑level Safe Routes to School liaisons.

Board members asked that remaining questions from trustees be collected to a shared document and answered in a follow‑up report. Officials said two formal after‑action reviews have already been held and that a consolidated report will be delivered to the board in November.