Naperville District 203’s new bus system more efficient, cost effective

Naperville School District 203 has initiated new, more efficient bus routes designed to save money and avoid parents scrambling for transportation when a driver calls in sick.

The district is using a route optimization plan implemented this August for increased reliability and fewer cancellations. The changes, which affect more than 10,000 students and their families every day, was highlighted at the Sept. 7 school board meeting.

Last year, the district averaged one canceled route per school day, Director of Transportation Cynthia LaBorn said.

“For families, those cancellations meant finding transportation with very little notice,” she said. “That was not the level of reliability we wanted for our families and it became an important driver for the work we undertook this year.”

A nationwide bus driver shortage has affected transportation operations, and the district is not immune, LaBorn said. About 80% of school administrators across the country said driver shortages have affected their transportation operations, she said.

“Every eligible student should have transportation safely to and from school every school day without a route being canceled because we do not have enough drivers available,” LaBorn said. “To achieve that level of reliability, we knew incremental changes would not be enough. We needed to examine the structure of the system itself. This resulted in the district undertaking its first significant stop and route optimization in decades.”

With the bus route optimization, the district has cut 76 bus stops, decreasing from 576 stops last year to 500 stops this year, said Lisa Xagas, assistant superintendent for strategy and engagement.

Most new bus stops are about 270 feet, or 0.05 miles, from students’ prior stops, she said. Students walk less than half a mile to their stop, even though Illinois law allows for students to walk up to 1.5 miles to a bus stop.

The number of routes has also decreased from 167 routes last year to 134 routes this year, and bus drivers are driving a total of about 910 fewer miles per day, Xagas said. Last year, district buses traveled about 6,372 miles per day compared to an expected 5,462 miles per day this year.

“That optimization allowed us to better align the number of routes we operate with the drivers available to operate them,” Xagas said. “It also reduces mileage and creates a more sustainable transportation system.”

With the changes, the average route times increased by about four minutes from 42 minutes last year to 46 minutes this year, Xagas said. The run times include when the bus leaves the transportation center, picks up all the students on its route, brings them to school and returns to the transportation center.

There is a driver for every route this year, which is better than last year, but the district is still accepting applications and hiring new bus drivers, Xagas said.

Last year, the district operated more routes than it had drivers, and many ran far below capacity, causing coverage gaps, according to the district. Mechanics, office staff and other personnel would drive routes on a daily basis.

The district is hoping to avoid cancellations because it has built some substitute drivers into its schedule, Xagas said. For example, a bus driver might pick up high school and elementary school students daily but then be used as a substitute to handle a middle school route, if needed.

Financial challenges also led the district to seek bus route improvements as a chance to save money.

The state of Illinois has not appropriated enough money to its transportation reimbursements and costs continue to rise, resulting in a loss of nearly $8.5 million over the last five years, LaBorn said. Local dollars have had to absorb costs that would have otherwise been covered if the state reimbursement program were fully funded. The district is already facing a structural deficit of about $4 million.

Though diesel fuel prices fluctuate, the optimization plan could come at a savings of about $450,000 a year due to reduced fuel consumption, fewer total active routes, and decreased mechanical wear and tear across the fleet, the district said.

“That’s real money we are saving by doing this optimization,” board member Joe Kozminski said, adding that less diesel and fewer miles reduce the emissions from the buses. “We’re really doing something that is fiscally responsible and also good for the environment of Naperville.”

Board member Marc Willensky said the new routes help balance the district’s budgetary pressures while getting children to and from school.

The district is also looking to make future improvements, such as adding an opt/opt out for transportation services, since some students, especially at the high school level, do not ride the bus, Xagas said. Qualified students now are assigned a bus route even if their family regularly drives, walks or carpools. An opt-in/out process, which might be implemented next year, could further consolidate routes and reduce costs.

Other future changes may include having student scan their ID card so the district knows which students boarded or exited a bus in the event of an emergency.

Michelle Mullins is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.