In a Monday news conference, Superintendent Robert Avossa discussed the upcoming school year, enrollment, teachers, new programs and leadership and provide a transportation update.
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Avossa said he expects the district will enroll 195,000 students this school year, an increase of 3,000 to 5,000 students from last school year.
Buses in Palm Beach County hit the road Monday morning in preparation for the first day of school Aug. 15. The district ran its 647 routes in hopes of correcting issues that arose during their first practice last Wednesday.
Transportation heads say much improvement was made Monday because they met with drivers and asked how the routes could be improved.
During the first 10 days of school, Avossa said there will be issues.
"You have people that move, we have additional kids who decided to take the bus," Avossa said.
But he's hopeful these issues will should be resolved by the 10th day.
“The problem is when it continues to linger on week after week, like it did last year, that was really a routing issue and a people issue, and we feel like we’ve been really chipping away at the culture,” said Avossa.
Since the meltdown, drivers have received a pay increase, new management was put in place and the district made fixes to its routes and GPS tracking software.
Watch the full news conference in the video player below:
Avossa said even though they are fully staffed with drivers, they continue to hire more. The tracking and routing systems are now up to speed and the district says they have fixed a majority of the bus fleet in case some break down.
As for the advice for students planning to ride a bus this year, Avossa says he’d like to see a majority of them take the bus Monday.
“I know the first day of school, obviously parents want to bring their kids to school, it’s an exciting time, but we are encouraging individuals to allow their children to ride their bus the first day of school so we get a sense of how many students will be taking the bus," said Avossa.
It’s predicted 60,000 students will be riding Palm Beach County school buses this year.
The routes will be released Wednesday, Aug. 10 for parents.
