BOARD CHAIR BOARD MEMBERS Alvin Swafford Striplin Georgia ?Joy? Bowen BOARD VICE mums ?aunts Dee Dee Rasmussen CHAIRMAN Rosanne Wood Maggie Lewis-Butler SUPERINTENDENT Rocky Hanna October 2018 Dear ParentiGuardian, The school year is off to a great start and we are proud to transport more than 12,000 students to and from school every day. We wanted to take a moment to communicate with you about some changes coming up in the Transportation Department. We take great pride in driving your student to school to school every day. We are focused on transporting students both safely and quickly?the last thing we intend to do is have students on a long bus ride. Over the years we have gone out of our way to provide services that went beyond the state requirements of a school system transportation department. However, we are now experiencing changes on two fronts that may impact some of those services. We are facing an ever tightening budget. This year alone the State Legislature only provided an increase of per student. We have all seen the fluctuations in gas prices and increased cost of maintaining vehicles?we are not immune to those costs. Additionally, we are experiencing a chronic problem in the recruitment and retention of quali?ed CDL licensed bus drivers. There is a huge de?cit of CDL licensed drivers in the market place and we are competing everyday with the private sector to employ quali?ed drivers. LCS Transportation currently has 38 vacant driver positions and we forecast that that number may increase over the next two to three years. The LCS School Board and Superintendent Rocky Hanna have taken the step to increase the salary base of bus drivers by nearly 20%. White this step will heip with retention of drivers, we will however still fall further behind. To address the coming short fall of drivers and budget, your LCS Transportation staff will be taking the following steps and initiatives: 1) The Reduction and Eventual Elimination of Ineligible {Courtesy} Stops. These are stops within the two mile zone of a school site that the State Government will not reimburse District Schools for ridership. Last year we provided courtesy transportation for over 1,000 students out of a total of a little more than 6,500 bus stops. These stops are very expensive to provide and very time consuming. LCS estimates that up to 12% of our current regular student ridership are ineligible riders and therefore require up to 12% more buses on the road. Forthe LCS District that means there are as many as 12 14 extra regular route buses on the road than needed to carry out our state mandated mission. Twelve to fourteen less buses on the road is 12 - 14 less drivers needed. Manny Joanos, Director Leon tCountyr Schools Transportation Department 1155 Capital Circle SW - Tallahassee, Florida 32304-29913 Phone (350] 433-2536- Fax {35019224916 Building the Future Together ?Tire Leon County Schooi District rioes not discriminate againsrr any person on the basis ofrace?, coior, ethnicity, naiionoi origin, religion, age, Sex (incinding transgender, gender nonconforming, and gender Manon), maritai status, pregnancy, sexuai orientation, or generic information. Transportation ParentiGuardian Letter (cont?d) Page 2 2) Reducing Unnecessary Bus Stops. While every parentof every student bus rider wants their child picked up at their front door, we are not in a position to provide that service. There is not enough time in the morning nor the a?emoon to accommodate all the steps that parents want us to provide. Over the next year, the LES Transportation Department is adopting new criteria to provide stops at no less than 4 tenths of a mile between each bus stop. This action will reduce current stops on most routes. This action will also allow for a bus to cover a greater area and reduce the time a student is on the bus. Utilizing a New Electronic Routing Platform and System. Superintendent Rocky Hanna and the LES School Board have approved the implementation of a new automated bus routing software. This software, when fully implemented, will optimize all routes electronically. The effect of a fully optimized system is estimated to reduce the number of routes by another 3 - 12% of all routes?including both regular and ESE routes. This optimization combined with the reduction of courtesy routes should reduce the number of buses used for daily transports by 22 22" buses. Reducing needed drivers by 22 -27 will go along way towards stabilizing 38 vacancies. Other Benefits from Implementing New Electronic Software. a) The new automated software will interface with the LCS Student Information System (Focus). This will allow for an immediate assigning of a bus route and stop for a quali?ed student rider. The software will match stops where eligible riders live to improve and increase the ef?ciency of our routes. b) Each bus driver will be equipped with a tablet that will communicate wirelessly while on a route. This tablet will provide the driver with drivers' routing path in map form and with audible commands. c) The driver will have hislher rider manifest update every evening. Each bus will be equipped with an electronic reader scanner so that each student will use a plastic card to scan while getting on and o? the bus. In the event a student doesn't have their card on a particular ride the driver will record the student entering and exiting the bus on the touch screen of the tablet. Having this up to date real time manifest will provide Transportation Administration the ability to notify parents quickly of any unforeseen issues that may arise. d) Parents will have the ability to download a cell phone application that will provide the parent with real-time noti?cation of the whereabouts of a bus and the notification of when their student boarded and disembarked. In closing, The Leon County Schools Transportation Department is committed to providing the best and safest bus service possible to ensure the safety of our students as well as punctuality of our service. However we ?nd ourselves confronted with the realities of having a program that has grown exponentially in extra services at the expense of efficiency and reduced time on the bus. We will be planning and implementing the above mentioned Initiatives over the next several months in anticipation of a fully optimized schedule for the 2019-20 school year. Some of you will be affected. However, please know that the safety of our children is paramount and there will always be an appeals committee process in place to address your concerns. Respe . Manny Joan 5, Director of Transportation Manny Joanos, Director Leon County Schools Transyrortation Department 1153 Capital Circle SW Tallahassee, Florida 323044993 -Phone (353] 433-2333 - Fax {353] 322-4913 Building the Future Together "The Leon County School District does not discriminate agar-ringf any person on the basis of race, coior, ethnic-inn norionoi origin, religion, age, sex (incinriing rransgendcr, gender nonconforming, and gender identity, nmrit?ai status, pregnancy, scxuai orientation, or generic information.