Transportation requests for students to be sought earlier from parents

Parents will be asked to submit transportation details to the school district earlier so routes can be determined sooner and have less changes, according to the transportation plan presented to the Independent School District 728 School Board at a meeting on March 13.

District Transportation Manager Kari Schugel presented the plan for the 2023-24 school year to the board. Schugel said creating routes for the students to ensure everyone who needs to is taken to school takes a while.

“We learned last fall that letting families wait until the week or two right before school led to us scrambling and having to add a route,” Schugel said.

Transportation requests will open April 10, and parents will have a 12-week window to complete the request through the parent portal. June 30 will be the last day the district will accept requests for students enrolled at that point. New enrollment student transportation requests will be taken through Aug. 28.

“(Aug. 28) is the magic cut-off date to help us get the school year off to a positive note,” Schugel said.

Schugel said that sounds scary but allows the district to print maps, driving instructions and student lists for the drivers, as well as have a test run before the first day of school. There will be a pause and then requests will resume and be processed the week of Sept. 18 and processed in the order received. Review of the stop location adjustments to parent and community requests will begin Oct. 2.

“These will be positive changes, but different for our community to see,” Schugel said.