Tiered Bus Routing in ESD 401

Tiered Bus Routing

The Ellensburg School District boundary encompasses 544 sq. miles of the lower Kittitas valley.

This vast area creates a very complex bus routing system because most of the district boundary area is on rural roads.

We have removed the furthest school bus turnaround points from the routing system to shave valuable time on each run and stay within the
ESD boundary.

Currently, the furthest four corners of the school district boundary take 35-40min to reach in a full size school bus.

This fact requires us to utilize multiple buses to cover each quadrant of the school district in order to transport all of our students.

The tiered bus routing system will require the school buses to make two separate runs on each route, divided by student age group.

Proposed Bell Times for SY 20-21:

Tier 1-
 MSE: 0730/1400
 LINC: 0745/1415
 VVE: 0755/1425
Tier 2-
 MMS: 0915/1545
 EHS: 0920/1550
Tiered Bus Routing in ESD 401

School District Policy 6600 states the following:

In order to operate the transportation system as safely and efficiently as possible, the following factors shall be considere d
in establishing bus routes:

A. Where an alternate route may be considered without sacrifice of effi ciency or economy, preference shall be given to that
route more directly serving the largest number of students.

B. School bus stops will be placed at strategic locations along routes. Since these routes are streamlined, it is the parent’ s
responsibility to get their students safely to and from the established stops. Location of bus stops may be determined by
such factors as student safety, economy and efficiency, and condition of the roads.

C. School schedules shall be adjusted to allow maximum utilizati on of each bus in the system by alternating elementary and
secondary trips.

D. Unless approved by the Board, bus routes shall not go outside the Ellensburg School District.

We believe the tiered routing system best complies with the intent of this policy and will best serve our students for years to come. The tiered
system provides flexibility to absorb the limited student attendance in the Hybrid A/B school model and lack of enrollment boundaries. It assists
us in avoiding negative impacts to bus driver pay plans and benefits, absorbs potential staffing shortfalls, and it creates a more efficient
utilization of school district resources.