Schools

PCCS : Transportation Update -- December 16, 2021

This letter outlines a change to our bus services that will impact most families that utilize transportation services at Plymouth-Canton ...

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Press release from Plymouth-Canton Community Schools:

12/16/2021 3:12 PM

P-CCS Parents, Families, and Staff:

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This letter outlines a change to our bus services that will impact most families that utilize transportation services at Plymouth-Canton Community Schools. It includes a new bus schedule that is important to review for families as we implement a planned rotation of suspended routes.  

In order to provide a more predictable transportation program for our students and families returning to in-person instruction in January, 2022, we are making the following changes to our transportation program:  

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  • Proactive Suspension and Rotating Routes Planned  - Beginning January 10, 2022, we will rotate the suspension of 12 uncovered routes every two weeks. This plan will continue until such time that an adequate number of drivers are in place to reliably cover all routes.  The purpose of this plan is to make suspensions more predictable (and fair) for all families while reducing delays and last minute cancellations in daily routes. Please note that state-mandated Special Education bus routes will not be canceled or suspended. 

  • Our plan at this time is to rotate routes every two weeks, starting with bringing back the routes that have been suspended since the beginning of the school year. Once these routes are back up, they will be exempt from a planned suspension for the remainder of the school year.

While we are not able to guarantee there won’t be additional suspensions/rotations of routes due to unexpected circumstances, the goal is to significantly reduce the frequency of last-minute suspensions or significant delays.  This will provide more timely notice of scheduled route suspensions so that alternative plans can be made.

Why is this happening?

There is a severe shortage of bus drivers to transport students across the U.S. that is impacting  most school districts that offer transportation. Durham School Services (our transportation provider) and Plymouth-Canton Community Schools have worked together over the past seven years to aggressively recruit additional drivers.  We have taken a number of measures to increase compensation, improve retention of drivers and increase efficiencies where possible. As we get closer to January, when student ridership and staff absences routinely increase, we are concerned that more frequent, last-minute route cancellations may occur. 

The Route Rotation Schedule will be as followed:

Starting January 10, 2022, we will reinstate the current 10 suspended routes as identified below and suspend 12 new routes on a two week rotation basis, leaving us with 2 sub drivers to cover call-ins and driver absences. The following routes will be reinstated on January 10, and would not be affected by the rotating cycle because of the length of their current suspension:

  • Route 6 Bus 21G - High School, West and Hulsing

  • Route 10 Bus 13 - High School and Starkweather

  • Route 14 Bus 18G - High School, West and Isbister

  • Route 25 Bus 79 - High School, Liberty and Field 

  • Route 27 Bus 100P - High School, Liberty and Bentley

  • Route 37 Bus 34G - High School, West and Isbister

  • Route 44 Bus 45P - High School, Discovery and Hulsing

  • Route 54 Bus 81 - High School and Starkweather 

  • Route 66 Bus 85P - High School and Gallimore 

  • Route 76 Bus 67G - High School, Pioneer and Smith.

    • Starting January 10, 2022, we will begin with suspending the following routes (High School = P-CEP):

    • Round 1: 1-10-22 through 1-21-22 

    • Route 2 Bus 98P - High School, Liberty and Bentley      

    • Route 8 Bus 4 - High School, West and Dodson  

    • Route 12 Bus - 72P High School, Discovery and Isbister     

    • Route 16 Bus - 50P High School, West and Bird          

    • Route 18 Bus 24 - High School, Liberty and Field                                         

  • Route 26 Bus 26 - High School, Discovery, Farrand  

  • Route 55 Bus 25G- High School, East, Dodson

  • Route 56 Bus 11 - High School, Liberty and Hoben  

  • Route 64 Bus 75G - High School, Pioneer, and Eriksson  

  • Route 65 Bus 84P- High School, Pioneer and Gallimore  

  • Route 75 Bus 28 -High School, West and Hulsing       

  • Route 78 Bus 80 - High School, Pioneer and Gallimore

    • Round 2: 1-24-22 through 2-4-22 

      • Route 1 Bus 94P - High School, Liberty and Gallimore

      • Route 5 Bus 61 - High School, Liberty and Eriksson    

  • Route 7 Bus 41 - High School, Liberty and Isbister  

  • Route 21 Bus 64P - High School, East and Eriksson    

  • Route 29 Bus 93P – High School, West and Eriksson    

  • Route 33 Bus 35 – High School, East and Isbister          

  • Route 43 Bus 17G – High School, Pioneer, and Workman   

  • Route 57 Bus 70P – High School, Discovery, and Dodson    

  • Route 59 Bus 99P - High School, Discovery and Bird     

  • Route 61 Bus 77 – High School, West and Bird

  • Route 62 Bus 10 – High School Discovery and Tonda

  • Route 63 Bus 83 – High School, Pioneer and Bentley

    • Round 3: 2-7-22 through 2-18-22 

      • Route 11 Bus 89P – High School, West and Isbister                                     

      • Route 23 Bus 3 – High School, Pioneer and Hulsing  

      • Route 24 Bus 5 – High School, Discovery and Bird     

      • Route 30 Bus 39 – High School, Liberty and Workman  

  • Route 32 Bus 7 – High School, Discovery and Workman   

  • Route 36 Bus 60 – High School, Liberty and Hoben    

  • Route 38 Bus 40 – High School, Pioneer and Smith   

  • Route 40 Bus 23 – High School, Pioneer and Miller    

  • Route 45 Bus 51P – High School, West and Dodson  

  • Route 68 Bus 58P – High School no middle school because of length of Gallimore  

  • Route 69 Bus 90P – High School, Shuttle and Gallimore

  • Route 73 Bus 69P – High School, Shuttle and Gallimore

    • Round 4: 2-21-22 through 3-4-22 

      • Route 9 Bus 47 – High School, Discovery and Bird                                        

  • Route 19 Bus 78 – High School, Liberty and Eriksson                                   

  • Route 28 Bus 33G – High school, Shuttle and Tonda                                    

  • Route 31 Bus 31P – High School, Shuttle and Farrand                                 

  • Route 35 Bus 97P – High School, Liberty and Workman                              

  • Route 39 Bus 37G – High School, Shuttles and Hoben                                 

  • Route 41 Bus 43P – High School, Starkweather                                             

  • Route 47 Bus 71P – High School, Discovery, Hulsing                                     

  • Route 49 Bus 12 – High School, Pioneer and Workman 

  • Route 51 Bus 30G – High School, East and Dodson   

  • Route 58 Bus 59 – High School, Pioneer and Hoben

  • Route 67 Bus 88P – High School, West and Gallimore

  • Route 71 Bus 86P – High School, Pioneer and Gallimore

    • Round 5: 3-7-22 through 3-18-22 

      • Route 3 Bus 14 - High School, Pioneer and Workman  

      • Route 15 Bus 44 – High School, East and Farrand                                          

  • Route 20 Bus 95P – High School, Pioneer and Dodson   

  • Route 34 Bus 22G – High School, West and Farrand                            

  • Route 42 Bus 36 – High School, Discovery and Workman                          

  • Route 46 Bus 6 – High School, Discovery and Hulsing        

  • Route 48 Bus 27 – High School, West, Isbister

  • Route 50 Bus 19G – High School, Pioneer and Gallimore                         

  • Route 52 Bus 46 – High School, Liberty and Smith                                       

  • Route 53 Bus 16G – High School, Liberty and Dodson 

  • Route 56 Bus 11 – High School, Liberty and Hoben

  • Route 60 Bus 32G – High School, Pioneer and Bird

    • We recognize the inconvenience caused by these adjustments to our transportation program, and we regret the hardship it may cause for families. We believe that the proactive approach outlined above will result in a more predictable transportation program during this period of severe driver shortages.

    If you have any questions or concerns, please contact our Transportation Office at 734-416-3034 and/or email swallace@durhamschoolservices.com. The safety of our students will always remain our number one priority.

    Sincerely,

    Monica L. Merritt

    P-CCS Superintendent of Schools

    Jeff Carnicom

    Vice President of Operations

    Durham School Services

    This press release was produced by Plymouth-Canton Community Schools. The views expressed here are the author’s own.

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