Bell Times and Bus Schedules for Seattle Public Schools - What's Next?

Knowing how this is a key issue to families, I decided to first write about the Work Session on Transportation that was embedded in this week's Seattle School Board meeting. (I am attempting to find out if minutes were taken for both the embedded meetings but I haven't received an answer. If you want to watch the Work Session here's the link; start at minute 4:06:20.)

Analysis

Bottom line - transportation is gonna change but how?

• HCC is moving back to neighborhood schools so that means fewer routes for getting those kids to schools that provide service for them. Ditto for much of Special Education.  I would like to see the difference those numbers make BEFORE changing anything else.

• I would think that Walk Zone changes might be tough to do because many areas of the city don't have sidewalks or have safety challenges; not sure how to mitigate those issues. 
  

• As you will see from the discussion,  Option Schools seem to be the most mentioned in terms of changes. Campbell did mention that she had seen a model where students in specialty programs would report to the neighborhood school to pick up bus service to their Option school. What do folks think of that? 

• It's unlikely that longer bus rides for most students would not be what most families would want to see. 

• I think if they ran a model around bell times, they would have a clearer picture of what that would do and how much it would help. 

It appears that some on the Board will support changes to Transportation.  It will be interesting to see how it plays out but the majority seem to be okay with it. 

Discussion

The Transportation update was given by Fred Podesta, Chief Operations Officer, and Marni Campbell, head of Transportation. Podesta noted that for the first time, in a long time, there is competition within the bus service between two companies, First Student and Zum. He spoke of the very difficult balancing act of the budget for next year. Here's the link to the presentation.

Campbell said that she had been brought in mid-to-late August and "honestly learning" but there was a lot to learn.

Podesta said this was an update that they would "pull no punches on" but also stated there would be no new recommendations.  Also noted was the issue that they still have staffing issues and need crossing guards.

They noted for transportation you need "efficiency and efficacy." Campbell said that "the journey of learning starts when students leave home and go to school." At the same time, she also said that 70% of SPS students do NOT use district transportation. They also said there had been a decrease in ridership and "families have made other arrangements." 

It was also stated that the district cannot count students using ORCA cards in their reporting to the state and that means fewer transportation dollars. Funding is based on number of riders (not individual students) going to/from school and the number of destinations. "The number of buses used has no impact on allocation of funds (from the state)."

They also said that, legally, they only have to provide bus transportation to Special Education students and homeless students but that, naturally, they want to help families who need the service.

The bottom line is that the district spends about $51M on transportation, the state only gives the district about $22M and the gap for the district is about $29M. Campbell did note that if the district were to restrict busing, they would likely lose revenue but that the revenue they get right now doesn't even cover costs.

So the district says about 30% of students use district transportation. Using rough numbers, if there are 50,000 students, 30% is about 15,000 students. Divide 15,000 students into $51M and that's about $3400 per student. No wonder it's a problem. (Page 11 of the presentation shows Ridership Over Time - it appears that the district used to serve about $22,000 students.)

Podesta said they know from parent feedback that going back to 3 tiers is a no go.

President Hersey jumped in and said he was receiving email and wanted to clear up a few things. "Are we cutting 3 tiers?" Podesta said no. "Will transportation be cut to Option Schools?" No. 

Here's the list of things the district is considering to lower costs without going back to 3 tiers.

-Return more Special Education students to General Education routes (this appears to be already in motion to happen)

- Shift bell times for Option Schools and the Skills Center back on hour (calling this "Modified 2-Tier)

- Shift bell times to accommodate multiple schools on one route (also part of Modified 2-Tier)

- "Opt-in Transportation" - This was something mentioned that apparently is happening in Everett SD.  This means parents ask for transportation rather than "routing by eligibility." Podesta noted this could make "Swiss cheese routes."

- Modify transportation to Option Schools

- Walk zone changes

- Adjust Transportation Service Standards for longer ride times. Currently for Attendance Area elementaries and K-8s, it is 45 or less. "All other routes will be designed to operate with travel times of 60 minutes or less where feasible."

Director Hampson mentioned doing a survey of Transportation families and the "implication of what is more important - two tiers versus actual transportation." This was the first actual out-loud mention of cutting transportation service somehow.

Director Rankin asked when they could see projected changes and Podesta said in late January. He noted that Transportation is competing against every other choice the Board has to make. She said she also wanted bell times "decoupled" from transportation.

I see that Everett has an app for their buses; is that true for SPS?