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Transportation Update
Prosper ISD
Prosper Families
We hope that you have had a good start to the year! We are now on our sixth day, and wanted to share some information with you.
Regarding transportation, we missed the mark. Period. And we are here to take responsibility for that. I will never make excuses to you, but I will always try to provide insight to what is happening behind the scenes.
Some good news….Here Comes the Bus app is functional and operational. You can find information about the app HERE. It allows you to monitor where the bus is along its route.
We know that many families have experienced frustration with bus transportation this year. We want to offer an explanation for the less-than-awesome start, not an excuse. While many of our students did get picked up and dropped off on time, we know many of you were waiting at the stop or at school for a bus. And that is not ok with us. We’ve received valid questions from our families, and we want to answer those here. We are so grateful that the vast majority of you have been so understanding and coming from a place of support.
How did we not plan ahead for additional students needing transportation?
You moved to Prosper to raise your family, in no small part, because of the outstanding educational experiences this district provides to your children. And thousands of families from Texas, California, New York, Canada, India, England, and all over the globe agree with you. Prosper ISD is the place they want their children to grow and learn.
The word about Prosper ISD has gotten out: over 3,200 students enrolled in the past calendar year! Based on past enrollment trends, we predicted that we would open the start of school with about 23,500 students. At the end of the day on August 16, we had 24,539 students enrolled.
This means that our actual enrollment was over 1,000 students more than what we expected. Like many of you, more and more people decided that Prosper ISD was where they wanted to make their educational home. This is a good thing, but doesn’t come without its challenges.
Just like in many service industries, there is a national bus driver shortage. We were impacted by that as were dozens of other districts across North Texas.
There was a computer software programming malfunction that broke the connection between our routing system, Skyward and Here Comes the Bus.
What are we doing to address the problem right now?
Last week the Prosper ISD Board of Trustees raised the beginning hourly rate to $25 per hour for bus drivers.
Many of our drivers are driving multiple, tiered routes to make up for our driver shortage. As of today, we are 36 drivers short. Prosper ISD continues to be a destination for learning excellence, and new students are arriving every day.
We have hired 3 drivers; 2 more are being trained; and we are interviewing 15 drivers this week.
We have advertised for drivers on social media and our website.
Our entire staff has jumped in to help by driving buses – so many coaches have taken morning and afternoon routes, staff are riding buses as monitors and answering phones in transportation so that anyone who can drive a bus is on the road.
What are we going to do to best prepare for future years?
We are going to survey our families to gather feedback about the start of school experience.
We will use that feedback to partner with parents and improve how we prepare for future starts of school.
We will adjust our transportation registration process based on your feedback and input from our campuses and staff.
We will have a communications plan in place to ensure that you have information as soon as possible so that you can make the best decisions around transportation for your family.
The easiest thing to do when things go wrong is to say, “Well, they should have done ….” Yes. You are right. There were many things that we could have done better. And we will. We will take these lessons and learn from them and be better prepared tomorrow and the day after that. In education circles, we call that continuous improvement.
You see, we expect from ourselves no less than what we expect from our students. We grow and learn every day. We show up even when it’s hard. We make mistakes and hold ourselves accountable. We are not perfect, but we keep trying.
That is why we are all here in Prosper. And why we are projecting that another 3,000 students will enroll here this year. And another 1,500 families will move here this year. Because we all want to be part of this special place. Where even when things go less than great, we are here the next day, trying to be better. Because in Prosper ISD, we will continue to do our very best for our students every day.
Dr. Holly Ferguson
Prosper ISD Superintendent of Schools
Best Public Schools in Texas
Prosper ISD has an established 66-year history that is grounded in the humble roots of a farming community, now soaring to the fastest growing school district in the State of Texas, due in no small part to the pursuit of excellence in the arts, academics and athletics. Our students are routinely recognized on the local, state and national level for outstanding achievements, and our teachers are highly qualified experts who bring out the best in every student.
About Prosper ISD
Prosper ISD is a school district located north of Dallas in Collin and Denton Counties. The district spans approximately 58 square miles and serves more than 23,000 students in 15 elementary schools, 4 middle schools, and 2 high schools.