Beech Grove transportation director details fleet, routes and replacement plan
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Summary
Director Misty Mack told the school board Sept. 9 that the district runs 78 daily routes with a 33-bus fleet, transports about 1,600 students, ran 916 activity trips last year and plans to replace two buses a year under a five-year plan.
Misty Mack, the district’s director of transportation, told the Beech Grove City Schools board Sept. 9 that the district operates 78 daily bus routes and a fleet of 33 buses and is maintaining a five‑year replacement plan that replaces two buses each year.
Mack said the district transports roughly 1,600 students of about 2,850 enrolled students and that high school ridership has grown — at the time of the presentation the district was transporting about 390 high school students. “We run a fleet of 33 buses,” Mack said, noting the fleet’s age distribution: six buses aged 1–5 years, 16 aged 6–11 years and 11 aged 12 years or older. Buses 12 years and older face a biannual state police inspection, she said, and that inspection profile is prompting district replacement activity.
Kevin Kinder, the district’s routing and trip coordinator, provided trip counts and operations detail. The district logged 916 activity trips in the prior July-to‑July reporting year, he said, with most activity trips supporting high school athletics and middle school athletics following. The transportation office also operates a number of dedicated shuttles — including a bus for LifeBridge, daily runs for Boys & Girls Club and a late evening bus — and added a Student in Transition (SIP) route this year.
Mack described driver and monitor staffing: 16 full-time bus drivers, seven substitute drivers and seven monitors, of which three hold the state “yellow card” that allows them to transport students on activity buses without a commercial CDL. The district also is using a small yellow bus this year for routes with 15 passengers or fewer. Mack said the department has a driver trainer who assists new applicants getting CDLs.
The district is moving its older diesel buses out of service in favor of gas‑powered vehicles and expects to transition to a Bluebird gas fleet. “We are transitioning away from diesel going all gas,” Mack said. She said the district typically schedules two bus replacements every year to keep the fleet current.
Board members and the superintendent praised the transportation staff for reliability and responsiveness. Superintendent Dr. Hammock, who attended the presentation, called the transportation team “extraordinary” and thanked them for their work in the start of the school year.
The presentation closed with a brief question period and no formal action; the board did not vote on changes to the replacement plan at the meeting.
The district plans to continue routine reporting on transportation metrics and to follow its established replacement schedule.