Schools
PCCS : Updated List Of Transportation Route Rotations For Bus Cancellations (Updated March 4, 2022)
See the latest announcement from Plymouth-Canton Community Schools.
03/04/2022 6:00 PM
P-CCS Parents, Families, and Staff:
Find out what's happening in Plymouth-Cantonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
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, updated on February 16, 2022, 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 who returned to in-person instruction in January, 2022, we continue to make the following changes to our transportation program:
Find out what's happening in Plymouth-Cantonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
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Proactive Suspension and Rotating Routes Planned - Beginning January 10, 2022, we began rotation of 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.
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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 updated Route Rotation Schedule will be as follows:
Round 5 (Updated March 4, 2022)
3-7-22 through 3-18-22
-
Route 48 Bus 27
Route 53 Bus 16G
Route 20 Bus 95P
Route 60 Bus 32G
Route 55 Bus 25G
Route 46 Bus 6
Route 12 Bus 72P
Route 75 Bus 28
Route 78 Bus 80
Route 52 Bus 46
Route 42 Bus 36
Route 26 Bus 26
Route 64 Bus 75G
Route 50 Bus 19G
Route 34 Bus 22G
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
P-CCS Parents, Families, and Staff:
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, updated on February 16, 2022, 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 who returned to in-person instruction in January, 2022, we continue to make the following changes to our transportation program:
-
Proactive Suspension and Rotating Routes Planned - Beginning January 10, 2022, we began rotation of 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 updated Route Rotation Schedule will be as follows:
Round 5 (Updated March 4, 2022)
3-7-22 through 3-18-22
-
Route 48 Bus 27
-
Route 53 Bus 16G
-
Route 20 Bus 95P
-
Route 60 Bus 32G
Route 55 Bus 25G
Route 46 Bus 6
Route 12 Bus 72P
Route 75 Bus 28
Route 78 Bus 80
Route 52 Bus 46
Route 42 Bus 36
Route 26 Bus 26
Route 64 Bus 75G
Route 50 Bus 19G
Route 34 Bus 22G
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.
