Sioux Falls School Board hears detailed update on buses, routes, technology and staffing

The Sioux Falls School District on Monday received a comprehensive briefing on transportation operations, including ridership, vehicle counts, new technology and near-term budget figures.

The report said School Bus Inc. and district staff coordinate about 345 routes that move just over 8,100 students daily. "To accomplish this, they have approximately 90 drivers, 40 aids and 7 staff office staff support," the presenter said, summarizing the contractor's staffing and route work.

The update emphasized that the district provides transfer transportation for students ages 3 to 21 and that fee-based busing for specialized programs and two-way immersion has grown. The presenter said, "This year approximately 200 elementary students and 175 middle school students ride the fee based busing for specialized programs offered at Sonia Sotomayor, Robert Frost, Eugene Field, Rosa Parks, Hayward, Edison, and Patrick Henry." She also gave counts for high-school "tripper" routes: 132 signed up at Washington, 127 at Lincoln, 247 at Roosevelt and 296 at Jefferson.

Officials described how technology added in 2022 now allows parents to track buses in real time and set geo-alerts. "Over 42% of our families of bus eligible students are utilizing the stop finder app," the presenter said. The contractor has added tools such as Bus Bulletin for route communication and Bus Hive for field-trip requests; officials said more than 1,400 field-trip requests have been submitted through the system so far.

On safety and video, the report noted that all buses have camera systems and that the district and contractor added an "Armor" camera system on about 40 buses this year. The presenter said the district's capital outlay five-year plan contains funding to equip the remaining buses with the Armor software within two years.

Vehicle counts presented to the board listed six mini buses, 42 traditional-style buses, 59 transit-style buses and 13 minivans used for express routes. The district and School Bus Inc. have also ordered two white multifunction activity buses and three additional Type C buses; the activity buses were scheduled to arrive in April and the Type C buses in August, the presenter said.

Board members asked about recent driver shortages and route changes. The presenter said the contractor recruited with creative events and raised starting wages; the shortage peaked at just over 20 drivers early in the year but, "by January School Bus Inc. was fully staffed and we were able to split those routes back out and reduce the ridership time." The presenter also provided budget figures for next year: general education transportation costs are "just under $5,100,000" and special education transportation costs are "just under $3,600,000."

Contractor representatives described the new multifunction activity buses as an intermediate option between standard school buses and motor coaches. "Each seat has its own AC, each seat has its own relight, it has a charging port," one representative said, and the contractor said it hopes to add Wi-Fi through E-rate partnerships for long trips.

The board voted to acknowledge the transportation report during the meeting.

The presentation said the department runs three evacuation drills on buses every year and holds monthly driver-and-aid meetings on topics including winter driving, emergency response and student management.