With school set to begin Thursday in the St. Paul Public School District, Tuesday's announcement regarding bus service and scheduling changes likely caught thousands of parents and students off-guard.
Read the full announcement here.
In an effort to allow students to continue riding the school bus, if eligible, the district announced schedule changes at seven locations.:
American Indian Magnet: 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m.
Battle Creek Middle School: 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
Capitol Hill Magnet School: 9:45 a.m.-4:15 p.m.
Jie Ming Mandarin Immersion: 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m.
L’Etoile du Nord Elementary: 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m.
(Upper Campus) / 8:40 a.m.-3:10 p.m.
(Lower Campus)Murray Middle School: 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
Wellstone Elementary: 9:45 a.m.-4:15 p.m.
Additionally, SPPS officials announced high school students at four additional schools will have to ride Metro Transit using a free student Go-To card. Those schools include:
Central High School
Como Park Senior High
Harding Senior High
Washington Technology Magnet School (9-12 grade students only)
The sudden changes come as the district, along with others across the nation, faces significant bus driver shortages.
Of the 275 bus routes in the district, only 50 bus drivers are district employees with the other drivers filled by outside vendors.
"Two weeks ago we were approximately 40 drivers short," said District Superintendent Dr. Joe Gothard. "That meant if we did nothing, 5,000 SPPS students would not have a way to get to school or get home from school."
Gothard says they received even more dire news about the driver shortage late last Wednesday.
"One of our contractors informed us that they would be unable to provide 36 additional drivers," he said. "This was news to us and this was a surprise to us."
When it came to adjusting start times at seven schools, SPPS Chief Operations Officer Jackie Turner said schools were chosen in relation to bus service.
"Those particular schools were chosen as schools that have larger transportation routes," Turner said. "Most of those schools are citywide magnets meaning they cover the entire city and require quite a bit of busing, more so than some of our community schools."
A similar though process was considered when seeking help from Metro Transit.
"As we looked at Metro Transit coverage and their ability of being able to walk and get to school in a reasonable amount of time, those four schools are the ones physically located to accessible Metro Transit routes." added Turner.
In total, Gothard estimated the announcement impacts school start times and transportation for nearly 10,000 families in the district.