Peninsula transportation chief reports zero student-injury accidents, 1.22 million miles and staffing strain

Donette Wright, the district’s director of transportation, told the Peninsula School District Board of Directors on Oct. 21 that the transportation department logged more than 1.21 million miles last school year and recorded zero accidents that resulted in student injury.

Wright said the department drove 1,086,554 miles on regular to-and-from routes and added 131,800 miles for trips and athletics, for a grand total of 1,218,350 miles. She told the board the system transported nearly 4,000 students daily to about 2,197 bus stops and used 61 contracted drivers and 13 substitutes on the roster.

The presentation focused on staffing, fleet replacement, new routing technology, fuel and maintenance savings from propane buses, and the ongoing operating deficit compared with state STARS funding.

Why it matters: Transportation is a core district function that both affects student attendance and carries significant recurring costs. The department’s operational choices — vehicle replacements, fuel type, routing software and driver recruiting — influence annual budgets, service reliability and parent communications.

Wright credited recent staff reorganizing and training with improved operations. Over the summer the department moved a longtime trips coordinator into a specialist role to handle trip paperwork, hired Lonnie as a dispatcher and reported its first time in recent memory that the vehicle shop is fully staffed. Wright said the district operates 80 buses (51 large, 29 small) and has added new propane-powered buses; nine buses were propane-powered at the time of the presentation and five more buses were due in November.

On funding and costs, Wright said the district submitted STARS data to the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) that produced an estimated allowable cost of $7,309,264 for the district’s transportation program. Wright said the district’s actual operating cost for the year was $8,117,089 — about an 11 percent gap that the department covers with local dollars and levy support. She also said replacing older diesel buses with propane buses reduces fuel and maintenance costs; Wright presented a model showing a fuel-plus-maintenance savings of about $0.78 per mile between diesel and propane buses and estimated multi-million-dollar savings over time if the district transitions more of its fleet.

Wright described other operational changes intended to improve reliability and parent communications: a new routing software and tablets in each bus, a parent app that shows bus GPS in real time and, later, near-field‑communication (NFC) ridership cards that will record where a student boards and disembarks. She said the district has implemented Bus Hive for field-trip scheduling and a time-clock system to improve payroll processes.

Driver recruitment remains a challenge. Wright said the district trained 23 people this year, with 6 new trainees starting Oct. 6, and cited driver turnover (retirements and other departures) even as the district hired three fully authorized drivers from other districts. She said the district has 61 contracted drivers and 13 substitutes whose availability varies by day.

Wright also described safety and community programs: bus emergency drills with local fire departments at elementary schools, a “Stuff-a-Bus” community donation drive scheduled for Nov. 15 at Fred Meyer and Target, and ongoing participation in EPA and DOE rebate programs for cleaner buses (Wright said federal rebate availability and program emphasis remain uncertain).

Board members and the superintendent praised the transportation staff. Board members asked technical questions about how STARS treats fuel costs and whether savings would change the district’s funding shortfall; Wright said OSPI’s STARS reporting includes fuel categories (diesel, gasoline, other) and that she expects the district’s improvements to reduce local operating cost but cannot say whether the state’s funding algorithm would fully close the gap.

Ending: Wright said the department’s priorities are continuing to replace older buses, expand propane vehicles where cost-effective, roll out ridership cards and parent-facing features, and continue recruiting and training drivers. She said she would update the board when federal rebate programs or state rulemaking change the funding outlook.