Jefferson County Public Schools will not be making any major adjustments to its transportation plan ahead of its fall break following the busing catastrophe at the beginning of the school year. According to Superintendent Marty Pollio, the district has eliminated 7,500 no-show bus stops, consolidated routes, added additional support at bus compounds, and launched a parent portal to help track where buses are."We are holding it together as best as we possibly can right now. I fear making major changes to the system right now because we would have to reroute every child, reroute every bus, retag every student, and go through that same process again," Pollio said. Pollio had previously hinted that larger adjustments might be necessary during fall break to better deal with the ongoing bus driver shortage. Instead, the board approved some short-term solutions, including:Paying early childhood parents a daily $5 stipend to self-transportPaying teachers their normal hourly rate when volunteering to fill in for bus driversProviding additional pay to bus drivers who take on what are deemed as "challenging routes" Pollio warned the district will have to look at other ways to reduce the number of students riding the bus going into the next school year. "I just think the community needs to know that the days of all students being transported to all schools is at the end of that road and so we're going to have some discussion about what that will look like," Pollio said. Pollio presented the board with four potential options to consider ahead of the 2024-25 school year.Option 1:Transport ALL magnet/traditional students via Magnet Hubs*Could save approximately 60-70 busesOption 2: Transport only Free and Reduced Lunch magnet/traditional students*Could save 95-100 routes Option 3:Transport only Free and Reduced Lunch magnet/traditional students via Magnet Hubs*Could save approximately 100-110 routesOption 4: Eliminate transportation to all magnet/traditional students*Could save approximately 130-140 routes"These are four options that we can consider. I think taking them to the community, having honest conversations throughout the course of the year and then implementing one of these before we start next year is going to be imperative for us," Pollio said. The district is also planning to increase its recruitment efforts for new drivers. Recently, 11 new drivers completed their CDL courses and another six will be starting soon.JCPS is currently running 568 bus routes with 578 drivers.