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Grand Rapids schools warn driver shortages and aging buses are stretching routes and fueling student safety concerns
Summary
Transportation director Greg Olsen told the board the district is operating 44 bus routes, logged 936,799 miles last year, and is short drivers; he flagged vaping on buses as a growing safety and legal issue and urged restoring a regular bus‑purchase rotation and adding routes to cut ride times.
Greg Olsen, the district’s transportation director, told the Grand Rapids Public School District board that driver shortages and an aging fleet are lengthening student ride times and increasing maintenance costs.
"We are down to 44 bus routes," Olsen said, and later added the district recorded 936,799 miles last year for school transportation operations (excluding athletic trips). He said 2,988 students are set up to ride the bus and that some buses now carry roughly 80 students when routes are fully loaded.
Why it matters: long rides and understaffed routes affect students’ daily schedules and can reduce instructional time and staff capacity. Olsen said adding about five routes would ‘‘cut down ride time considerably’’ and that returning to a multi‑bus annual purchase rotation would improve reliability.
Fleet and budget details: Olsen described an aging fleet of 69 buses, noting 48 have more than 100,000 miles and 24 have 120,000 miles or more. He said earlier purchase plans budgeted about $675,000 a year and supported buying seven to eight buses; rising unit prices have pushed per‑bus costs much higher in recent years.
Student behavior and safety: Olsen gave the board a two‑month snapshot showing 191 written behavior referrals, with 59 from West, 44 from East and 115 at the elementary level. He called vaping ‘‘a huge issue on our buses’’ and said repeat vaping offenses have led to removal from transportation: "I've kicked off six kids for the remainder of the year because their second offense [was] vaping," he said.
Technology and operations: Olsen described the second year of the MyRide K12 app rollout, saying the tool has ‘‘helped tremendously’’ for real‑time communication. Uptake of student scan cards has been modest; the district offered cards to families and had roughly two‑dozen requests so far.
Board discussion: members asked about discipline procedures after a driver writes up a student, the feasibility of leasing vehicles (Olsen said he had not pursued leasing and favors purchase and rotation), the practical limits on shortening very long rural routes (he described an unfilled Big Fork route taking six to eight hours), and whether new drivers could be recruited to reduce single‑driver long routes.
What’s next: Olsen recommended restoring a vehicle‑replacement rotation, increasing recruitment for drivers and routing staff, and expanding use of MyRide features (including card scanning and driver turn‑by‑turn navigation). The board did not take a formal vote on policy changes at this meeting but directed continued discussion at staff level.
Attribution: quotes and figures come from Greg Olsen’s transportation indicator presentation to the board and related Q&A during the Nov. workshop.
