HOUSTON – Weeks into the 2024-2025 school year, a Houston grandmother with four grandchildren at Gregory-Lincoln Education Center says they still haven’t been assigned a bus.
PREVIOUS: Around 700 Houston ISD students still being assigned new bus stops, routes
Tammy Chavis takes her grandchildren to school each morning because their parents work overnights. She begins the day by picking up her grandchildren in the Acres Homes area, then drives roughly 12 miles to Gregory-Lincoln.
Chavis repeatedly calls school officials at Houston ISD and those at the transportation office to try and resolve the problem but says she gets the runaround.
KPRC 2′s Rilwan Balogun has reached out to the district for comment regarding Chavis’ predicament. He will have more on this development later today in a live report.
Ongoing problems
This isn’t the first experience KPRC 2 has reported.
Ahead of the first day, the district said around 700 students were waiting to be assigned new bus stops and routes.
CONTINUOUS COVERAGE ON TRANSPORTATION ISSUES
On July 23, HISD announced they were making cuts to 85 bus routes to better accommodate students participating in the school choice program.
These students attend a school they’re not zoned to, and HISD is one of the only districts in the region to transport them.
“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,” a July statement from the district read.
On the first day of school for Edwin and Kimberly Haller, they had to take multiple METRO buses to get their first grader to Briarmeadow Chart School because they said they weren’t given a route.
“It’s very frustrating. I have anxiety problems, so I get really frustrated. So, it’s very frustrating to have to go through this and not know what bus your child is going to be riding,” Kimberly said.
Once KPRC 2′s Re’Chelle Turner and Rilwan Balogun reported on their issue, the district assigned them a bus.
Houston ISD’s July statement read these changes 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.
The following changes have been made in the 2024-2025 school year, according to the statement:
Decreasing the number of bus routes from 508 routes in 2023-2024 to an estimated 423 routes in 2024-2025.
Reduced the ride time for the average student to an hour and fifteen minutes each way. This is down from roughly an hour and forty-five minutes.
HISD plans to reduce total transportation costs this school year by $10M. Streamlining routes will save an estimated $3M. Additional cost savings will come from improving the way we dispatch and manage buses.
Houston ISD isn’t the only district with persistent issues
Thousands of kids across multiple school districts no longer have a bus ride to school, and the routes can be perilous.
RELATED: Students face daunting walks to school amid Cy-Fair ISD bus issues
At Cy-Fair ISD, KPRC 2′s Joel Eisenbaum found out some students faced a 40-minute walk to school.
“There’s no sidewalks whatsoever,” Cy-Fair parent Mario Rivas said.
Rivas’ 12-year-old faces a 3.6-mile round trip, almost an hour and a half of walking per day.
“I have to be at work at 6:30 in the morning. Who’s going to take care of my son,” Rivas said.
Cy-Fair ISD released a statement on what they say is causing the problem, and what they’re doing to fix it:
“With an initially projected $138 million budget deficit for 2024-2025, reducing transportation services was a difficult decision that was necessary to prevent further reductions in staff at the campus level. There is minimal state reimbursement for providing transportation services to students living within two miles of a campus. CFPD is working directly with campuses to identify the safest walking path for students at each campus, as well as determining the main point of entry and the number of crossing guards that are needed at that campus. Neighborhoods and volunteer groups may choose to monitor additional intersections. Additionally, we are collaborating with some HOAs and MUDs, and Precincts 3 and 4, to identify solutions and additional resources to address concerns. Some neighborhood communities are exploring the possibility of increasing supervision at key intersections during arrival and dismissal time, in addition to adding more sidewalks. Parents may also choose to transport their child to school by car.”