MPS committee accepts transportation study outlining options to reduce costs and improve on-time performance

The Committee on Finance and Operations of the Milwaukee Public Schools Board accepted a transportation opportunity analysis from consultant Formative on a motion by Director Zomber, voting 4–0 to accept the report and direct further study and community outreach.

Formative’s chief of client services, Mary Dilman, told the committee the district operates an “exceptionally complex” system — more than 800 vehicles across 17 vendors supporting a three‑tier bell schedule — and that unusually short stop spacing and uneven bell‑time distribution depress seat utilization and increase costs. “Taken together these top findings suggest there are opportunities to improve both efficiency and operational visibility without fundamentally changing the district’s commitment to student access,” Dilman said.

The study highlighted that elementary walk‑to‑stop distances are, by policy, limited to a quarter‑mile but that MPS’s median distance is far shorter, producing many closely spaced stops and underfilled buses. Dilman recommended near‑term work to safely maximize the existing policy and, in the medium term, consider modest stop consolidation and routing changes to reduce failure points and ride time.

Dilman and district staff modeled several savings scenarios. Targeted bell‑time balancing for a small number of schools was modeled to produce roughly $4.2 million in annual savings. Increasing planned seat utilization from 51% to 60% — the equivalent of roughly four additional planned riders per trip — could theoretically yield up to $11.1 million annually, the study estimated. Offering parent payment as an additional option for selected long‑distance riders and negotiating expanded county transit use were also modeled as partial savings levers, each dependent on careful design and community participation.

Interim Chief Operations Officer Michael Turza and senior director of business and transportation services David Fafaric emphasized the scale and practical constraints: transportation is roughly a $79 million line item for the district, and any material savings will require removing buses from service and sustained operational changes. Fafaric described technical and process shortcomings that undermine visibility — for example, about one‑third of trips lack reliable GPS affiliation due to driver switchouts — and urged investments in GPS capture, improved geo‑fences, ridership validation and a centralized transportation operations center to provide consistent customer service and vendor accountability.

Directors pressed on equity and special‑education impacts. Director Hearnen asked how changes would affect students who receive transportation as a related service. Administration said individualized education program (IEP) teams will continue to make accommodation decisions and described a draft framework for transportation accommodations (curb‑to‑curb, eye‑to‑eye release, closest corner definitions) to guide IEP teams.

Administration proposed a phased approach: pursue lower‑pain operational levers and technology investments for FY27 while conducting broader engagement on larger options (parent payment, bell‑time adjustments and expanded county transit use) for FY28 planning. The superintendent said the district will undertake a six‑month engagement process with school councils, parent groups and other stakeholders and aims to present initial findings to the board later in the year.

The committee’s acceptance of the report does not itself change routes or schedules; it authorizes the administration to continue planning and community outreach toward possible future policy or operational changes.