Busing Concerns Not An Issue This School Year, HCPSS Superintendent Says

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — After a slew of transportation issues plagued the Howard County Public School System last year, superintendent Bill Barnes shared how the start of the school year has gone so far.

"Throughout the past year, there has been a focus on student transportation challenges of last school year with increased scrutiny on Zum Services' role. Since becoming acting superintendent and then superintendent of the Howard County Public School System, I have had very productive and positive conversations with Zum leadership and I commend the efforts of their staff and drivers to improve and play a significant role in the success in this year’s student transportation efforts," Barnes said.

In addition to having all of their routes covered, Zum has reported being on time 97% of the time and consistently receiving a 4.9 out of 5 rating from HCPSS families, Barnes said.

"I have had conversations with school administrators and they echo this positive feedback. This is
extremely reassuring. Additionally, Zum has trained over 150 new school bus drivers to help overcome shortages and their technology has provided tremendous transparency so families have accurate information about school buses," Barnes said.

However, the problems last year didn't fall solely on the outsourced transportation company, Barnes noted.

"We have been challenged by a bus driver shortage of nearly 100 drivers for several years, resulting in many challenges transporting students to and from school efficiently. I also acknowledge how our legacy contractors were treated and recognize the work we have done to rebuild supportive relationships because the work of transporting our students is a partnership and each of our contractors is critical to this work," he said. "A recent transportation audit and subsequent media attention has resulted in some looking back at the challenges of last year. Zum has expressed their disagreement with the framing and portrayal of some statements contained in the report and HCPSS acknowledges the role our internal issues played in the challenges from a year ago."

Barnes said he now plans to focus on continuing to foster the relationships with school system staff and transportation contractors that so far have lent themselves to a "highly successful start to the current school year."