Transportation update: district runs 75 regular routes, 51 special-education routes and plans operational fixes for better start-of-year service

Mark and district transportation staff updated the board on routing, staffing and reliability improvements for the transportation department.

The district said it transports roughly 8,337 students (including district students plus students at charter and nonpublic schools that opt into district transportation) using a three-tier routing model; staff said they run 75 regular-education routes (each route includes morning and afternoon tiers), 51 special-education routes and a number of midday special-education routes for shortened/modified student schedules and job sites. Staff said special-education routing is driven by Individualized Education Program (IEP) team decisions and by care-and-treatment placements; those routes can extend beyond district boundaries.

Transportation staff reviewed cost drivers and historical expenditures, noting that district transportation costs rose substantially in recent years after the district changed providers and entered a six-year contract with Schmidy's (the vendor named in the presentation). Superintendent Funk told the board that transportation is a significant component of the district's cost increases over several years and said staff are working to control costs and improve service.

Staff described operational causes of past delays: inaccurate address and enrollment data in the student information system, a routing software setup that pushed live changes to driver tablets during route hours, and a lack of a non-live "sandbox" to test new start-time scenarios. To address these problems the district said it has:

- Created a sandbox environment to model next-year routes before publishing them live to driver tablets; - Implemented an opt-in enrollment period and weekly outreach with charter/nonpublic partners to confirm ridership; - Instituted data-validation steps at student registration to confirm addresses and alternate drop-off locations; - Planned a new help-desk ticketing system to centralize family requests and avoid duplicate work; - Hired additional transportation staff and engaged an experienced routing consultant (a former district transportation director) to review routing efficiency.

Staff said the start-time changes planned for next year also allow more efficient use of buses across tiers and that, with the opt-in process and routing sandbox, the district expects to route more efficiently and shorten ride times for some students. Directors asked questions about special-education routing practices and midday routes; Superintendent Funk and staff said special-education transportation decisions are IEP-driven but that the district will review practices for potential efficiencies where appropriate.

Staff urged families who need transportation to complete the district's opt-in enrollment (schoolbus@stillwaterschools.org) and to report address or daycare changes before July so routes can be finalized in time for the start of the school year.