The April Route Report: Next-Level Prep for Summer School

Apr 11

Welcome to the April Edition of The Route Report, SBL’s monthly recommendations to keep your routing department on track. This month: phase two of summer school prep.

If March was about getting the wheels turning, April is when they really start moving. While the school year isn’t over yet, we all know that August and September have a way of sneaking up fast. That’s why now is the time to go beyond early planning and start laying the groundwork for both summer school and the next school year.

This month’s Route Report is all about phase two: checking in with drivers, prepping in-service training, reviewing your routing software, and getting ahead on government reporting. Whether it’s confirming your summer staffing or ensuring your databases are ready for rollups, there’s plenty you can do now to make the months ahead a little less stressful.

For Transportation Teams: Driver Engagement and Inservice Planning

Get ahead on staffing by checking in with your team early and often. A few strategic steps now will help you avoid scrambling later.

Gauge Driver Availability: Send out signup forms for summer work and field trips to drivers and bus aides. Include opportunities for bus cleaning and general maintenance, too.
Prep Inservice Details: Plan for required training hours, dry run schedules, and bid timelines.
Share Key Dates and Changes: Make all staff aware of any building, program or bell time change. Also, let drivers know about bidding windows and upcoming inservice sessions.
Book Your Speakers: If you’re bringing in outside speakers for inservice, now is the time to coordinate and share your goals for those sessions. And yes, our own Greg Jackson is available for speaking engagements! Reach out for more info here.
Encourage Feedback: Ask drivers to submit suggestions for route efficiency or training topics they’d find valuable.

For Routers: Summer Routing and System Updates

April is the sweet spot for prepping systems and streamlining your communication with program leaders.

Communication is Key

Stay in Touch with Program Directors: Confirm summer school locations and times, as well as deadlines for receiving student info. This is a great time to establish a reliable method for updates.
Share Key Information: Continue nudging district contacts for key summer and fall dates. Proactively track what information you’ve received and what’s still pending. Share Key Information: Continue nudging district contacts for key summer and fall dates. Proactively track what information you’ve received and what’s still pending. Typically, parents are notified to sign up their children for summer programs by the end of April – and will typically be notified about times and locations of summer school by the end of May.

Look at Your Logistics

Initiate Database Rollups: Begin transitioning current students to their next grade level and start new school year databases.
Set Up New Data Sources: School Bus Logistics can create a separate data source (or sandbox) in RouteHub to help get routes created and students prepped to take extra stress off your team.
Map Check: Review and update maps with any new subdivisions, apartments, or daycare driveways.
Boundary and Zone Adjustments: Make any necessary updates to school boundaries, walk zones, or hazard areas.
Note What’s Changing: Document any upcoming changes to bell times, building usage, or program placements. When reviewing district school bell times, see if you can better utilize your buses to reduce costs, routes, and get more students into classrooms. Need help? Finding efficiencies like this is our speciality.

Prepare for State Reporting

Share Your Plans: Make sure that adequate copies of your databases and routes are made for state reporting. Sometimes manual counts are needed for a comparison of actual versus planned, such as in states like Colorado.
Understand Your Requirements: The reports your department needs to provide varies state by state. Typically, Illinois reports don’t start processing until the regular school year ends in June. Check your requirements on your state’s Department of Education transportation page.

We hope this checklist helped you stay ahead — and a little more at ease. We’ll be back next month with more tips for successful routing!

If your district needs help meeting monthly tasks or prepping for summer school, SBL is here to help. Contact us today to see how we can make your routing department even stronger.

GET IN TOUCH