Douglas County School

DCSD Bus Transportation - Rolling Cancellation Schedule to Continue

2024-2025 School Year

May 31, 2024

Dear DCSD Families who are Eligible for School Bus Transportation,

Thank you so much for your cooperation and understanding as we implemented a rolling bus cancellation schedule this past school year. While we know this was far from ideal – it did help us keep bus routes predictable and consistent without implementing last minute cancellations. 

We are reaching out to let you know that the current rolling bus cancellation schedule will continue in the 2024-2025 school year. We wanted to provide you with as much advance notice as possible so you can make any necessary preparations. You can expect to receive an email with your child’s specific bus schedule sometime in July. 

For general education bus routes, each student’s bus route will be on for four weeks and then off for one week with this schedule rotating throughout the school year. As a reminder, this rolling bus cancellation schedule is for general education bus routes only. Special education routes will continue as normal and will not be impacted.

While this rolling cancellation schedule will help immensely with our transportation challenges, there is always a small chance that some sporadic cancellations could still occur. In the case where drivers or assistants are unexpectedly out, we will first do our best to cover any vacant routes with internal staff prior to moving forward with a cancellation. Should your bus route need to be canceled unexpectedly, we will make every effort to notify you at the earliest possible opportunity. 

Why are Rolling Bus Cancellations Needed?
In the 2022-2023 school year, we had to cancel many bus routes often with very little advanced notice to our families and staff. This was due to DCSD having unfilled bus driver and transportation assistant positions. In the case that a driver called out sick or took time off, we wouldn’t have anyone available to cover that route resulting in a last minute cancellation. The rolling bus cancellation schedule enables us to keep bus routes predictable and limit last minute route cancellations. 

What is Causing the Bus Driver Shortage in DCSD?
Please take a moment to watch the presentation to the DCSD Board of Education from April 2024 which explains the transportation challenges in DCSD. (recording of presentation | presentation slides).

DCSD is continuously evaluating our staffing and capacity for the upcoming school year. However, the nationwide bus driver shortage continues to affect school districts across the nation including DCSD. One factor is that the average age of bus drivers is over 50 so each year we tend to have many who retire. This year, we had 25 retirees. Thankfully, the passage of 5A (Mill Levy Override) in November 2023 enabled us to provide more competitive pay, and we were able to hire enough drivers to replace those who recently retired. While this is good news and means we are not in a worse position compared to last year – we were not able to hire enough to fully restore our bus routes and eliminate the rolling cancellation schedule.

Further exacerbating the situation is the enrollment growth we are seeing in parts of the county. We have many new home developments which are growing quickly. However, without additional funding via a Bond initiative, we are unable to construct new schools in those neighborhoods. As a result, more students are in need of bus transportation to a school outside of their neighborhood. 

Thank you for your understanding and partnership as we continuously work to improve our transportation service to our students and families. 

Sincerely,

Richard Cosgrove, Chief Operations Officer

Donna Grattino, Director of Transportation

Douglas County School District 

P.S. If you know of anyone who might want to join the DCSD family as a bus driver or assistant, please encourage them to apply at www.dcsdk12.org/careers. 

The following is the rolling cancellation schedule for DCSD bus routes for the 2023-2024 school year. As a reminder, this rolling cancellation schedule is for general education bus routes only. Special education routes will continue as normal and will not be canceled. 

We encourage families to mark these dates on their calendar. *Families should be sure to check their student’s route numbers for both AM and PM.  

Thank you for your understanding and partnership as we continuously work to improve our transportation service to our students and families.