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Ray-Pec Community,
At the Board of Education’s meeting on Sept. 28, I spoke with the Board about the district’s recent transportation experience with First Student. I shared that while the majority of the transportation system is running well, several areas are not, and the overall effect of those shortcomings on student arrival/dismissal times and activity trip transportation fall far short of our expectations. First Student certainly knows of our disappointment with portions of their service thus far. This takes nothing away from valued bus drivers who consistently run their routes successfully. We are appreciative of those drivers, and wish we had more of them. They are working extremely hard, and many are running additional routes beyond their original assignments. Additionally, the First Student office staff has been working a substantial amount of hours to solve issues brought to their attention.
I let the Board know that as a school district, we are not just sitting on the sidelines merely hoping this gets better. Our end goal is to maintain free busing for all students. While nearby school districts have cut back on or in some cases eliminated student transportation service, we are doing everything in our power to ensure that our bussing remains available for all students who desire a ride to school. To date, we have done the following to be part of the solution.
- We made an emergency purchase of four 10-passenger vans to use for field trips and activity trips to help alleviate pressure on First Student to staff these trips with buses.
- We have adjusted current school schedules where we can, and will continue to explore all other school start/dismissal scheduling possibilities to reduce the number of routes needed at any one time.
- We have opened up communication opportunities using our system for First Student to correspond directly with parents.
- Our own staff has pitched in to monitor buses, drive activity routes, and do whatever we can to help.
- First Student has recently changed management at our location. The new manager brings several years of successful experience from a large school district in Missouri.
The labor pool shortage is a big issue region wide, not only with bus transportation, but also across many industries. Help wanted signs are everywhere. I know First Student is working diligently on recruiting drivers for our routes.
Everyone wants this issue to be fixed and fixed quickly. We will continue to work toward that outcome. I sincerely apologize for all inconveniences experienced to this point.
Thank you for entrusting your children to the Ray-Pec School District,
Mike
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