Hernando Today
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Officials Brace For School Bus Ridership Increase
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Published: August 17, 2008
Brooksville - Hold on tight.
That's the mantra of Hernando County School District officials this fall, who are expecting a sharp increase in the number of students riding local buses due to rising fuel costs.
Transportation director Linda Smith explained that officials have revamped bus routes and reduced the number of students on each bus to make room for students whose parents likely won't be able to afford to drive to school this year.
They already had to redraw local routes this year to accommodate rezoning, and since many parents have typically waited in long lines in their vehicles in the past to pick up and drop off their children, transportation officials felt that many families will opt for busing this year instead, she said.
"(Pick-up and drop-off loops) get backed up," Smith said. "In the past, we've seen parents sitting and waiting for long periods of time, burning up fuel. Some get there early because they want to be the first in line, and they end up sitting there for a long time."
"Many probably won't be doing that this year," she added.
Also, all district high schools will have closed campuses this year — meaning older students will no longer be able to leave at lunchtime, and may decide riding the bus to school is cheaper.
"We figured they'd want to save their gas money for the weekend," Smith said.
Bus routes have been revamped for all grade levels. Where ordinarily bus routes would have been built with 60 to 65 kids per bus, the number of students on each bus has been reduced to leave room for new riders.
"We may get fooled, but that was just our anticipation," Smith said. "We felt it would be easier to pare down (routes) after the fact than have to expand, and we'd rather have more space to start with than automatically be overcrowded."
Six new routes have been added this year to accommodate students riding buses to schools outside their zones, including 400 students transferring to schools that have met the state's Adequate Yearly Progress system and dozens of others attending the new centralized gifted program at Explorer K-8 in Spring Hill.
The routes are far from complete. As recently as Wednesday, Smith's staff was receiving names of youngsters transferring schools, including 65 newly identified gifted students needing transportation to Explorer.
But officials — who started the rerouting process in January — have been working around the clock to make it work, she said.
"Last night, I had people working on this until midnight and coming back at 6 a.m. this morning," she said. "They're a hard-working crew, and I can't say enough about them."
Staff also led a mandatory training day this week with the district's 200 bus drivers and 45 bus attendants, who will be operating nearly 180 buses this year.
Officials have also consolidated some bus stops this year to conserve fuel, and the district is looking into purchasing two propane fuel buses later this year to further cut operating costs.
Smith warned parents to be patient next week, and said buses always run late the first week of school. This is due to making sure students are on the correct buses, she said.
District officials are already bracing for the usual onslaught of phone calls from parents.
"We've got banks of phones set up in here," Smith said. "We answer as many as we can, but during those first few days of school, we don't even have time to hang the phone up before its ringing again."
Bus routes for individual schools are available on the school district's Web site at http://www.hcsb.k12.fl.us/transportation.
Reporter Linnea Brown can be reached at 352-544-5289 or lbrown@hernandotoday.com.
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