Workgroup flags gaps in school transportation data, raising access concerns

The NAACP SDIRC workgroup on April 21 pressed district staff over inconsistent data used to measure transportation-related performance indicators, and asked the district to produce clearer exports and templates so the group can determine whether bus availability for after‑school activities is equitable.

The workgroup focused on two indicators. For KPI 8.9 — distance from a student’s home to assigned pickup location — district staff presented a student‑level spreadsheet but acknowledged it differed from a separate routings dataset that counts writership. "If you see a zero, that is the way the system indicates curb to curb or home stops," a district official explained, and added that the files include a column coding program types (A, B, U, Z). Members flagged a discrepancy of roughly 6,200 riders in one extract versus about 2,200 in another and asked staff to reconcile whether students were being double‑counted because the routing extract counted AM and PM runs separately.

The group also reviewed KPI 8.10, which requires nondiscriminatory access to busing for services, activities and programs. Members said extracurricular activities the district provided in a principal‑supplied spreadsheet (for example, tutoring, detention, drone camp and FBLA at one school) did not appear on the public PowerBI extracurricular page for the same school and dates. Staff told the group that PowerBI visualizations are fed by internal systems and public dashboards update monthly; by contrast, some internal dashboards refresh more frequently and many extracurricular entries rely on principals manually entering club and activity data.

That mismatch matters because the workgroup needs to match who participates in after‑school activities with bus availability to assess possible disparate effects. One participant asked whether limited bus service for extracurriculars is itself a barrier for underresourced students. Dr. Moore responded that "there is not a school system in America who can answer the question that you just asked," adding that the district provides transportation to school and limited after‑school service as an above‑and‑beyond expense. The meeting also included a reading of the joint‑plan language cited by members: "No student shall be segregated or discriminated against on account of race or color ... buses must be routed to the maximum extent feasible."

District staff said privacy constraints prevent displaying student names or full addresses during a public meeting but committed to filtering and producing an extract that preserves privacy while showing route ID, pickup/drop‑off, distance and the race column that the workgroup requested. The workgroup asked the district to accept a formal, written template specifying the exact columns and formats needed (for example, activity roster, days offered, which days buses run, and a field indicating whether a trip is AM or PM) and suggested temporary measures such as raw sign‑in rosters to reconcile participation and bus usage.

The workgroup did not reach a final conclusion on discrimination or policy change at the meeting. Staff agreed to produce the requested data extracts and to reconvene the KPI discussions once the clarified data are available. The group also agreed to circulate questions in advance to speed analysis at the next meeting.