Talk about timing. With just three weeks to go before the August 12 start of the HISD 2024-25 school year, Houston ISD has announced significant changes to its bus transportation policies, telling the parents of school choice students that they’ll be picked up and dropped off within three miles of their homes — not the previous two.
A statement released from the HISD press office at 9:05 p.m. Monday, said the number of bus routes will decrease from last year’s 508 to a projected 423 for the coming year. This “streamlining” will save the district $3 million a year.
In all, HISD says it will reduce total transportation costs by $10 million in the 2024-25 school year thanks to this streamlining and “from the way we dispatch and manage buses.”
At the same time, the ride time for the average school choice student will clock in at 1 hour and 15 minutes versus last year’s 1 hour and 45 minutes.
There was no explanation on how this will be accomplished: fewer but shorter bus routes — well shorter as long as the new three miles for school choice students it’ll take to get to a stop isn’t factored in. Families received a letter today alerting them to the change, according to the press release, with a goal of getting them their bus routes before the end of July.
This isn’t the first time Superintendent Mike Miles has tinkered with the bus schedules. For the start of the 2023-24 school year he wanted a bus schedule that had all the New Education System Schools and what were then called NES-A schools arriving and departing at the same time.
That was scrapped as unworkable but Miles said he’d be monitoring the bus system through the school year and come up with new modifications.
Now he and his administration evidently have.
In justification for the changes being made, HISD said:
“Previous administrations spent more than $50M on transportation infrastructure to transport roughly 9,000 zoned and choice students to school. This is not sustainable and the District must begin to address the problem in the 2024-2025 school year.
“These improvements were guided by a few key principles:
“HISD is one of the only districts in the region to transport students who elect to attend a school other than their zoned school. HISD will continue to provide transportation to families who participate in our school choice program.
“HISD needs to reduce ride time for our school choice students.
“HISD must use transportation resources more effectively.”
And this is what HISD families can expect:
“Students who attend their zoned school and use transportation as well as students with special education needs who require transportation will be served just as they have been.
“HISD will continue to provide transportation to students attending a school through the school choice program, but there will be a minor adjustment to the school choice routes. Student bus stops will now be within a three mile radius of the student’s home address. (Previously it was a two mile radius).
“Most of the roughly 3,000 school choice students who use HISD transportation will be assigned a stop at their zoned high school or middle school, and a bus will transport them to the school of choice they attend. In some cases, to ensure students aren’t crossing dangerous thoroughfares, students will access a bus stop that is not located at another HISD campus.
“Families will receive their bus routes before the end of July, and families will immediately be able to access a transportation helpline closer to where they live.”
Here’s the letter the parents got:
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
