The Savannah‑Chatham County Board of Education heard a proposal from Lanetta Mills, the district’s executive director of transportation, to pilot shuttle routes that would pick up choice‑program students at a handful of commercial hub sites and carry them to Charles Ellis and Garrison School for the Arts.

Mills said the pilot targets increased access for students who live outside walking zones and aims to reduce travel barriers to choice programs. The proposed pilot would include multiple stages — site selection and parent surveys, route simulation, staff training and a monitored launch — and would be evaluated on on‑time performance, safety incidents and cost per student.

Details of the pilot

- Scale and cost: Mills presented the pilot as covering 1,103 students using 20 buses with a combined estimated cost of about $1.5 million and a per‑student cost of roughly $1,326. The estimated cost per bus was $78,918 based on October enrollment data.

- Hub sites and schedule: Proposed hub locations named in the presentation include Food Lion (Hwy 30 & 21), Garden City Shopping Mall, Lowe’s at Pooler Parkway, Planet Fitness (near Southwest Middle), Savannah Mall, Publix at Whitmarsh, McAlpin Square (near Kroger), Memorial Stadium, Jenkins High School and Beach. Buses would arrive at hub sites about 10 minutes before departure to load students; the afternoon flow reverses that process.

- Phasing and targets: Planned phases include site agreements and parent surveys (Nov–Feb), route simulations and public awareness (Mar–May), staff training and practice runs (May–July), and launch with monitoring (Aug onward). Performance targets included on‑time arrivals of at least 83%, zero safety incidents and a cost per student at or below $1,500.

- Safety and discipline: Mills said campus police would be assigned to hub sites and that the district will require parents to pick up students; the plan describes a three‑strikes late‑pickup rule per semester that could remove shuttle privileges. Board members asked whether students with IEPs could lose transportation under that rule; legal counsel and staff said withdrawal of transportation must be considered through the IEP/discipline process and that manifestation‑determination review rules could apply in certain cases.

Board questions and concerns

Board members raised operational, budgetary and equity questions. Members asked staff to examine prior shuttle experience (a Wilmington Island shuttle from 2014–2018), to ground per‑student cost estimates in current district spending and to confirm property‑owner agreements at proposed hub sites. Members also pressed for clear plans on hub monitoring, authorized‑pickup verification (IDs/tablets) and traffic management at receiving schools.

Mills said the district will coordinate with campus police, draft memorandums of understanding for sites, run time simulations to keep shuttle time under 20 minutes and communicate maps/timelines to families. Staff will perform parent surveys to estimate participation (presentation figures assume full participation; fewer riders would require fewer buses).

What’s next: staff will distribute parent surveys, finalize legal agreements for sites, run route simulations and return with updated cost and participation estimates. The pilot’s continuation or expansion will depend on measured performance, cost and available funding.