Parents press district over 45-minute school bus rides and driver pay

Parents and teachers pressed the Johnson County School District #1 board on lengthy bus rides and driver recruitment at the board’s regular meeting, saying a combined route has turned a short neighborhood trip into an hour-long part of the school day for some students.

Laurel Foster, introduced by the board as a neighborhood parent, told trustees the Mayworth route was once a “20 minute route” but now takes about 45 minutes after it was combined with the North route. Foster said the change was not based on distance from school but on combining routes and that earlier attempts to fix the schedule were blocked for reasons including a lack of drivers.

The nut of the parents’ complaint was pay and benefits for route drivers. Foster said advertising for driver positions has been poor and that the district’s practice of granting full benefits only to employees working 30 or more hours creates a barrier: splitting a route, she said, could cause the current driver to lose benefits if her hours fall below the threshold. That, parents argued, discourages recruitment and undermines service continuity.

"A 20 minute route became a 45 minute route," Foster said, asking the board to change the morning order so Mayworth students have the shorter ride. Liz Graves, a former Johnson County teacher who said she taught in the area for 27 years, added: "It is too long of a day for these young kids."

Superintendent (S2) acknowledged parents’ concerns and outlined the district’s constraints. "We’re limited to what we can and can't do with salaries, benefits," the superintendent said, noting district budgets and staffing levels affect what can be offered. He also pointed board members to a route-analysis section in the superintendent’s report and said the district is still collecting and comparing data for the current school year.

Board members asked transportation staff to clarify which specific routes remain hard to staff and to share the full route analysis with trustees. Administrators said some routes remain unfieldable at present and reiterated efforts to recruit drivers, including advertising and incentives used in other districts.

The discussion did not produce an immediate policy change. Trustees said they would review the route data and explore options — including whether to change route order in the morning — while balancing the potential effect on existing drivers’ hours and benefits. Parents asked for clearer, more timely communication about hiring and routing decisions going forward.

The district plans follow-up outreach and additional data review before proposing schedule changes to avoid causing inadvertent loss of benefits for current drivers or creating other service gaps.