Durham schools propose GoDurham pilot to help high-school students get to class on time

Anthony White, senior executive director of auxiliary services for Durham Public Schools, told the joint city–county–DPS meeting the district is exploring a public-transit pilot focused on secondary students to “identify ways to improve access to transportation, reduce barriers for students, and ultimately increase on time arrival rates.”

White said the district screened schools for proximity to existing transit stops and alignment with bell schedules and identified candidate sites that include Northern High School, Riverside High School, Hillside High School, Durham School of Technology, Southern School of Energy and Sustainability and City of Medicine Academy. “If we were to prioritize one location, Northern High School would likely be our first recommendation,” White said.

City transit staff cautioned the boards to specify the pilot’s goals and metrics before moving forward. A GoDurham representative said recent service changes already boosted frequency on key corridors and that agency on-time performance “is above that 90% threshold right now.” Council and county members asked DPS to work with city and county staff to develop a data-sharing method so the district can measure how many students actually ride the city buses and whether attendance or tardiness improves.

White emphasized the pilot would not replace yellow-bus service: “The goal is to allow students some optionality and how they get to school.” He said the district will coordinate schedules with GoDurham and prioritize starting small and evaluating results before scaling up. Several elected officials asked DPS and GoDurham to include evaluation benchmarks—ridership counts, on-time arrival changes and equity impacts—before selecting implementation sites.