On Jan. 28, the JCPS Board of Education unanimously voted to restore bus transportation to six magnet schools, including Manual.
The plan shown in a presentation in Tuesday’s meeting outlines restoring bus transportation for Free and Reduced Lunch students at Manual, Butler Traditional and Louisville Male High School. Additionally, bus transportation will be available to all students at Coleridge-Taylor Montessori, Johnson Traditional Middle School, and Young Elementary School. The plan includes 60 new routes that will service 2,900 students and are expected to go into effect March 17.
The decision came after community pressure to restore busing and a sharp decline in magnet program enrollment rates. Some are even calling for the magnet application window, which closed on Dec. 20, to reopen so that families can consider new transportation developments when deciding what school to send their child to.
“It is so important to be able to have these opportunities and choices that magnet schools, like the six schools in consideration today, give to JCPS students. Taking away the busing from magnet schools took away access to these opportunities,” Love Eden (12, YPAS) said at last night’s board meeting.
Following severe bus driver shortages, JCPS voted in April 2024 to cease bus transportation to all but two magnet schools, Central High School and Western High School. Both of these schools have a significant amount of free and reduced lunch students. All schools retained bus services for homeless and certain disabled students.
A few weeks before that decision, the Louisville branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) gave a press conference offering their stance on the elimination of buses to magnet schools. They denounced the plan, saying that it would segregate JCPS schools by preventing minority students or low socioeconomic status students from attending magnet programs if they did not have access to other forms of transportation.
“Now is the time for you to do the right thing for this community, and we will be with you. Pause this process, and get a real plan and a real solution for our kids and for us,” Raymond Burse, President of the Louisville branch of the NAACP, said at last night’s board meeting.
In June 2024, two JCPS parents sued the district for violating students’ civil rights by eliminating theirbus routes, thereby limiting their access to schools of their choice. Two more parents joined the lawsuit later that summer. They dropped the lawsuit this past January.
Last summer, JCPS made a deal with TARC to hire up to 70 of their drivers in order to ease the bus driver shortage. This past December, 68 former TARC drivers had achieved the required certification to drive a school bus. JCPS released a press release stating that these new drivers could allow for some magnet schools to receive bus transportation again. As of January 22, there are 69 TARC drivers certified to drive public school buses.
JCPS has said that this plan will not have a significant impact on current bus routes, though the first few weeks of the new routes may cause some delays as students and drivers adjust. In the transportation update presentation, JCPS provided a six-week timeline where they plan to receive parent feedback and allow drivers to practice routes before March 17.
