(and Avoiding Making CNN)
Why do school districts so often raise the specter of increased transportation costs as the reason to avoid moving to healthier school start times (SSTs)? I gave 2 answers we commonly run across in the blog titled “Show me the Data”. Neither was a legitimate reason, mostly just fear of change hiding behind undocumented and uncontextualized numbers. But if you’ve played “show me the data” with your district and have what appear to be actual increased transportation costs as a roadblock between you and healthier SSTs, it’s time to really dig into the details of routing.
If you haven’t worked in K-12 transportation, you may have images of highly sophisticated routing systems directing the yellow bus ballet on the road. Maybe you’ve heard the pitches from software sellers promising to “optimize” your bus routes in less than 2 clicks. When Jefferson County Public Schools (KY) had a 1st day of school go so wrong that they made CNN,[1] some well-meaning constituents suggested that UPS jump in to help JCPS with Big Brown routing expertise. Unfortunately, while the routing theory might have translated, UPS couldn’t easily retool its software to handle JCPS’ specific needs.
So, while we think that there is a lot of computing power behind the daily big yellow routing schedule, in most districts, the reality is usually something way more 1985. This is how a large (75k+ students) school district was routing in 2022.
[1] https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/11/us/kentucky-schools-transportation-disaster/index.html
