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PGCPS transportation director cites improved staffing and urges parents to subscribe to Chipmunk app
Summary
Director Baldwin told PCAC an internal audit and operational changes boosted driver fill rates from roughly 85% to 96.1%, consolidated more than 2,600 stops and rolled out the Chipmunk parent app; he urged families to increase subscribership (16,000 current) to improve routing accuracy and enable a future opt-in model.
Director Baldwin gave the Parent Community Advisory Council a progress update on PGCPS transportation, outlining an audit (Dec 2023 baseline), operational fixes, and what families must do to ensure accurate bus assignments next school year.
Baldwin said the transportation office addressed gaps in staffing, technology and family communication. He reported improvements in vehicle-trip utilization and said the district consolidated over 2,600 bus stops. On staffing, he said the driver fill rate rose from about 85% in September 2025 to 96.1% through May 2026 after intensified recruitment (more than 33 hiring events) and other retention work: “September 25 through May 26, 2026, we have gone from an 85% fill rate to a 96.1… fill rate,” he said.
Baldwin described new systems — a routing system (BusPlanner), the Chipmunk parent app for real-time ETAs, and expanded communications staff — and asked parents to subscribe. He said roughly 16,000 families have subscribed to the Chipmunk app while about 85,000 students are assigned to bus stops; he set a district target of at least 70,000 subscribers to improve system accuracy.
He emphasized practical steps for families: activate ParentVUE accounts, complete online registration for transfers or new enrollments, and provide student ID and route/stop numbers when calling the transportation phone bank. Baldwin acknowledged current problems with call volume and dropped calls, described plans to give dispatchers GPS access and better tools, and encouraged parents to use the app’s help feature to report technical issues.
On discipline and safety, Baldwin said the district’s safe-passage coordinators focus on pedestrian safety and assist in evaluating bus stops; transportation completes incident reports and forwards them to school administrators, who have the authority to suspend bus privileges. Dr. Jackson, speaking in the Q&A, reiterated: “The authority to suspend a child rests solely with the principal of the building,” and principals must consider IEPs or behavior plans before removing bus privileges.
Baldwin outlined the district’s opt-out default (students outside non-transportation zones are assigned a stop but families who will not use it should opt out to improve routing) and said the district hopes to move to an opt-in model when subscribership supports more accurate routing. He also noted that route availability is constrained by union route-selection timing and that parents should expect route details in Chipmunk and Synergy by roughly the second week of August.
Next steps: Baldwin said the district will continue routing and app integration work, expand outreach to boost Chipmunk subscriptions, refine call-center tools to shorten hold times, and coordinate with school registrars to ensure enrollment data are accurate for bus assignment.
