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Board approves 2025-26 transportation plan; staff outline priorities and driver recruitment challenges
Summary
The board approved the district's Transportation Plan for 2025-26 to allow up to 60% state reimbursement; staff described priorities for special-education and distance-based routes, recruitment/training challenges (149 applicants, 3 certified drivers this year) and plans to roll out family-facing real-time bus tracking.
The Santa Maria-Bonita School District board on March 12 approved the district's Transportation Plan for the 2025-26 school year, a required document for state reimbursement of pupil-transportation costs.
Transportation staff told the board the plan prioritizes services for special-education students and McKinney-Vento students (Priority 1) and students who live farther than 1.2 miles from their school (Priority 2), with four safety-based tiers used to allocate routes. The district partners with contractor First Student for bus operations and is piloting recruitment and training programs; staff reported receiving 149 driver applications this year and certifying three drivers, describing the licensing and training process as lengthy and selective.
Staff also described operational changes: an increase in special-education routes, more white vans (operated by First Student), and a planned mobile app to let families view real-time bus locations and receive pickup/drop-off notifications, scheduled to roll out at the end of the month. Board members questioned charter costs, ownership of vehicles and longer-term options for a district-owned fleet; staff said First Student currently provides vans and drivers and noted capital and regulatory hurdles for owning a fleet.
A motion to approve the transportation plan under Education Code 39800.1 carried by roll call.
