A week-two update from Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) said some bus routes are still experiencing delays, but they are making progress in getting additional drivers on the road. Staff is also working to “optimize” routes to increase efficiency. Initially, calls to the district’s transportation hotline were averaging 6,000 a day but the volume has now reduced to 1,600 a day, PGCPS reports.
Transportation challenges are customary with the start of a school year, said an unsigned email from PGCPS, and the bus driver shortage continues to impact delays. The district also needed to accommodate additional students on buses due to an enrollment surge at the start of the school year and requests for bus stop changes.
“Stabilizing” Ridership
Senior Public Information Specialist Lynn McCawley told the News Review that at the start of every school year, every eligible child is assigned to a bus, unless they opt out. After about a month, ridership stabilizes, said McCawley. Then the district adjusts routes based on ridership. PGCPS asks all parents who don’t plan to use the bus to opt out.
However, some parents who complain of long waits or who worry about their children missing instruction due to late arrival at school avoid the bus during the start of the school year, when transportation difficulties are most pronounced; PGCPS, though, asks parents who want to use the bus to do so in the first weeks. “We understand at the start of the school year some families may choose to transport their student(s) by car until the bus arrival time is more consistent,” acknowledged PGCPS in an email to families. “Please understand we need your student(s) to ride the bus so that the driver recognizes the stop for the morning and afternoon trips. If no one is consistently at the stop, it’s probable the stop will not be serviced and ultimately be removed,” the email advised.
Vacant Routes and Delays
“The district has approximately 1,200 routes and currently 942 of those are covered. We need 135 drivers to be fully staffed,” PGCPS announced in a September 4 email. Online, the list of “FY 26 Vacant Routes” totaled over 1,200 in vacant routes alone, but McCawley told the News Review that list is really showing individual trips rather than routes. Each route can include as many as six trips, she explained.
On September 10, PGCPS adjusted its list of “Vacant Routes” and of the trips listed there, 460 now have a driver while 759 remain uncovered. Dora Kennedy French Immersion has 14 uncovered trips, a 15th had a driver assigned since the start of the school year. Eleanor Roosevelt High School has had four of their initially vacant trips receive a driver assignment but still has 19 uncovered. Greenbelt Elementary has five uncovered trips, with no improvement in the driver situation. Meanwhile Greenbelt Middle School has seen three trips assigned to drivers on September 5 and has 17 trips listed as uncovered. Springhill Lake Elementary continues to have three uncovered trips. In addition, Magnolia Elementary, whose catchment area includes Greenbelt, continues to have two uncovered trips.
Where trips do not have drivers assigned, they are covered by drivers of another route. Some trips are “doubled,” incorporating students from two different trips at once. The PGCPS Public Information Office could not tell us how many routes are doubled, as the number is fluid, they say. The district allows for students to sit three to a bench on the bus and a representative from the Transportation Department said students are allowed to stand when necessary. “If bus ridership is over-prescribed, measures are in place to make adjustments as needed,” McCawley said. However, without sufficient drivers it seems the difficult choice in some cases is between overcrowding during a trip or longer waits while drivers go back and forth to conduct multiple trips separately.
Bus Tracking
PGCPS is communicating through the SchoolMessenger and StopFinder apps to notify families when buses are running behind schedule, they said, and they’re assessing late arrival times.
“Our current routing system limits our ability to accurately track all bus on-time arrivals. The new Bus Planner routing system, being phased in over the first semester, will greatly enhance our ability to track and improve bus arrival times,” said PGCPS in an email to parents. The new system is the Chipmunk app, which began to be piloted with select special education F and L routes in week two. It will be rolled out to all schools to replace StopFinder in the coming months.
Meanwhile, parents might be unable to track the buses using StopFinder if the vehicle has more than one trip assigned to it, said a representative. “This is a major factor why we are transitioning to the new parent app because it addresses these concerns,” McCawley told the News Review.
More Drivers
Fifteen new drivers are expected to be ready for their routes by the end of September after completing training, stated a PGCPS email. An additional 12 drivers, who already have credentials, will also be ready at the end of the month.
PGCPS says its “aggressive recruitment campaign” for bus drivers includes television and radio ads, job fairs and community outreach efforts.
The next virtual recruitment event for bus drivers is Wednesday, October 8. The starting salary range is between $21.98 and $43.23 an hour. More information can be found at pgcps.org/offices/humanresources/careers/drive-with-us.
