With the new 2026-27 school year up and running, Naperville School District 203 officials have introduced a revised bus transportation plan that includes fewer bus stops and assigned routes.
Several factors have fueled the change, administrators reported at a board of education meeting Tuesday, Sept. 8, though they indicated student safety is at the heart of all the decisions implemented.
What’s driving the changes this school year
Cynthia LaBorn, Naperville 203’s director of transportation, and Lisa Xagas, assistant superintendent of student services, gave a report on the transportation plan that was rolled out last month at the recent board meeting.
They indicated Naperville 203 this year has in place exactly 500 active bus stops, which is a decline from the 576 bus stops that were in place a year ago. Additionally, the district this year has in place 33 fewer assigned bus routes, from 167 a year ago to 134 today.
The adjustments mean fewer miles are being logged on the district’s fleet of buses. Today, according to the district, bus drivers collectively clock 5,462 miles in a given day; a year ago, they drove 6,372 miles.
LaBorn said school districts across the U.S. have reported bus driver shortages and persistent challenges to recruit people for the positions.
“We experience that challenge locally as well,” LaBorn said. “Last year, in addition to our transportation office staff and mechanics regularly driving buses daily, we averaged approximately one canceled route per school day, because we operated more routes than we had drivers and also due to driver absences.”
The frequent exercise in juggling internal resources within Naperville 203’s transportation department had real-world impacts on families across the district footprint.
“For families, those cancellations meant finding transportation with very little notice,” LaBorn said.
The modifications in place are intended to remedy the cancellations that cropped up last year with a system in place that is more efficient.
“Transportation is an incredibly complex operation that impacts over 10,000 students and their families every day,” Xagas said.
A look at the complexity of District 203 busing
During the report, Xagas also confirmed Naperville 203 is not eliminating any of its transportation service levels.
In addition to traditional before- and after-school transportation, district buses are provided for more customized services, such as door-to-door transit for special education students, specialized routes for students facing housing instability, and midday routes for youngsters attending the Ann Reid Early Childhood Center.
Additionally, Naperville 203’s buses are used to transport students attending private and parochial schools within the district footprint, to shuttle students to the Technology Center of DuPage, and for co-curricular athletic activities and trips.
“When we talk about improving transportation, we are really talking about managing a large, interconnected system, with many different student needs and services,” Xagas said.
Naperville 203’s overall transportation program is a reflection of the requirements under the Illinois School Code and board policies.
Board of Education weighs in on changes
Board members weighed in on the revised plan at the recent meeting, and many gave administrators high marks for the adjustments that have been made.
Joseph Kozminski said the plan in place is beneficial to Naperville 203 on two fronts — helping trim expenses amid a budget shortfall and adopting more environmentally friendly protocols by emitting less diesel fuel.
“That’s real money that we’re saving, by doing this optimization, not to mention really support our carbon action plan,” Kozminski said.
Kristine Gericke said she viewed the presentation as an attempt at striking a balance at a time of challenges in multiple areas.
“We are still managing to serve our students quite well,” Gericke said. “Is it perfect? No. I don’t know what ‘perfect’ would exactly look like. We all have our own idea of that. But I want to commend administration.”
Parents, guardians have shared concerns
A number of parents and guardians have been commenting on the new routes and the impact they have had on students since school bells resumed ringing last month.
Parent Christi Helm, for instance, provided written public comment at the recent meeting and shared concerns about the length of time her daughter has to ride a bus to school, as well as reports of overcrowding on buses.
“The district continuously points to a lack of drivers as the root cause,” Helm wrote. “However, we don’t have a driver shortage; we have a compensation shortage. Starting wages for new drivers are just $23.35 an hour, with experienced drivers making just over a dollar more.”
Helm added, “We are trusting these individuals with the safety and lives of our children, yet paying them like entry-level retail workers.”
Xagas at the recent meeting did touch on the additional run time for buses with the route changes.
“It’s difficult to compare one route last year to one route this year, because the routes all changed,” Xagas said. “Last year, the average run time of our buses was 42.38 minutes. This year, the average run time is 46.4 minutes. So average routes went up by about 4 minutes.”
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