Board Rejects Proposal to Reduce School Bus Ride Times Over Scheduling Concerns

Caswell County Schools staff are back to square one after the Board of Education rejected a recommendation intended to better utilize the transportation resources available and reduce the amount of time students spend on the bus.

There are just over 2,000 students enrolled in Caswell's public schools. Approximately half of those students ride the school bus.

The county stretches over 428 square miles and has a population density of just over 52 people per mile. For comparison, Rockingham County is not much larger, stretching across 572 miles, but it has three times as many people, 161, per square mile.

This means Caswell County school buses are often traveling farther distances to pick up less children.

John Berdine, Director of Transportation for Caswell County Schools has previously explained the negative impact loop the county is in.

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) funding formula for transportation is based heavily on efficiency metrics. Those measures compare the number of buses used per 100 students relative to other counties. Low efficiency, often driven by low ridership, can result in significantly lower state funding for local school districts.

Berdine says is it is difficult to increase ridership when the bus routes are so long, but the district cannot add more routes without more buses, which requires more funding, and more drivers. Caswell already barely has enough of either. Adding more buses would only reduce the county's efficiency metrics, which would in turn reduce the amount of state transportation dollars the district receives.

After studying the data and reviewing innovative transportation models used by districts across the state, staff recommended a tiered routing system to allow many of Caswell's school buses (and drivers) to pull double duty - transporting elementary students on one route and middle and high school students on another.