St. Louis Public Schools district leaders projected confidence in a new transportation plan for the 2025-2026 school year during a school board meeting held Tuesday.
The district has established 220 routes and has over 200 buses from its new provider, Zum, ready to go for the first day of school, which is Monday, Aug. 18.
“100% of bus routes will be covered for the first day of school,” Chief of Operations Square Watson said.
The partnership comes following a school year where the district struggled to transport students after its primary bus provider ended its SLPS contract.
SLPS then relied on a patchwork of over 18 vendors, which included cabs, vans and some school buses, to get students to and from school.
Watson has since beefed up internal staffing within the transportation department to field calls from parents and guardians who were dealing with transportation delays.
The district instructed parents to download the Zum app that should have students’ bus routes, pick up and drop-off times.
Watson encouraged parents to pick up their students’ RF-ID cards from their students’ schools this week during open houses.
The cards are used to track students on their buses. However, students without an RF-ID card will still be allowed to board and take the bus to school — the bus driver will just check them in.
Watson also confirmed that Zum has located a bus storage facility and maintenance center in the city.
If parents have issues with transportation, they should first contact their child’s school to get assistance, Natasha Mitchell, director of technology, said.
“I can’t emphasize this enough, and it’s clear that it’s a priority here, but this is the thing we have to get right this year,” board member Ben Conover said.
The district did not provide additional details about how it plans to transport students who were displaced by the May 16 tornado.
Watson confirmed that the district had done site visits to the receiving schools, but did not mention how many students would require transportation.
Many families who had children enrolled in city schools are currently staying in St. Louis County or elsewhere in the city.
During a July board meeting, the district said it was still in the process of finalizing plans for students who have been relocated to other schools after seven were temporarily closed due to storm damage.
Students who have been displaced by the storm, but still wish to attend the same school as last year, are entitled to transportation through the McKinney-Vento Act.
The district estimates that as many as 2,000 students could be displaced after the tornado.
