A multitude of errors: What audit firm said about investigation into JCPS busing disaster

A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the amount of money paid to AlphaRoute. JCPS paid the team about $850,000.

A multitude of errors along with misleading information were major factors in the Jefferson County Public Schools' busing disaster, an audit firm told the school board Tuesday.

The firm's investigation into the first day of school problems showed JCPS officials and the vendor they chose to create new bus routes were at fault for busing problems that led to children not getting picked up for hours, having to wait at dangerous stops and some not getting dropped off until nearly 10 p.m.

The school district also failed to include its transportation department in much of the planning process, according to the audit report.

During their first meeting after the start of classes, school board members requested an external audit examining the problems. The district hired Prismatic Services, a K-12 education consulting firm out of North Carolina, in October.

The findings of the first phase of Prismatic's investigation were made public Monday, though district leaders have had the report since March 18.

Tatia Prieto, the founder of Prismatic, spent more than an hour Tuesday summarizing her team’s findings and addressing board questions — despite receiving short notice about presenting at the meeting, she said.

Her presentation ultimately discouraged board members from moving forward with a plan to cut magnet transportation at this time — even among those who had indicated that they would vote in favor of Superintendent Marty Pollio’s recommendation to do so.

“We came to the conclusion that the incident was not the result of actions taken or not taken just on Aug. 9, but rather actions taken or not taken in three separate but related initiatives: school choice, school start times and routing optimization,” Prieto said.

Here are the major issues highlighted by Prismatic.

Why weren’t transportation leaders involved in planning for major changes?

One significant issue with the rollout of the three initiatives that were simultaneously put into place on the first day of school was that the district’s transportation department was largely left out of the planning process.

Prieto said the transportation department was not adequately included in the creation of the new student assignment plan — an issue highlighted in a Kentucky Department of Education audit in 2020.

Back then KDE recommended JCPS “develop a process that allows the transportation department to be included in discussions around school choice and student assignment.”

Yet, for the next three years before the plan was put in place, this did not happen, according to Prismatic findings.

Prieto said the district’s transportation director was intentionally excluded from meetings. She did not specifically name who excluded the director, but that position reports to the Chief Operations Officer, who was Chris Perkins until October when he was reassigned.

The district hasn’t said why Perkins was reassigned less than two months after the busing disaster, nor what his duties are as a “special administrator.” This role does not exist anywhere else in the district, and the only further detail provided was that Perkins will work on “special projects assigned by the superintendent.” His pay remains the same in this position as when he was COO — about $195,000 a year — at least until the end of this school year.

Were JCPS school board members misled?

As district leaders worked to get the new start time schedule approved, board members and the community were repeatedly told JCPS has one of the most complex transportation systems in the country.

Prieto said that is not true. She also pointed out other instances when school district officials did not give board members the information necessary to make an informed decision.

Prismatic employees reviewed every JCPS board meeting since 2018, according to Prieto, and found that when discussing the new student assignment plan, it was never clear how the transportation system would be impacted, nor that start times would need to change for the new plan to work.

District leaders knew there would need to be additional bus routes, but that information wasn’t clear in the presentation board members received, Prieto said.

Additionally, Prieto said the district’s IT department nor school principals were adequately involved in planning meetings.

“The lack of detailed information made it difficult for the board to assess the feasibility of the three plans,” she said.

Board member Sarah McIntosh asked if Prieto thought this withholding of information was “willful and intentional,” in which Prieto answered no, but that there are still questions about the district’s planning process.

She referred to other districts Prismatic has worked with that were attempting just one major change — rather than three like JCPS — that had a better understanding of the “incredible importance of keeping track of all the moving pieces.”

When Prismatic requested notes from meetings, JCPS didn’t have many, Prieto said, meaning it was hard to see the process and project management.

What went wrong with the routes?

JCPS leaders did not adhere to best practices when selecting the vendor to create new bus routes. The they failed to properly communicate with that vendor, and the vendor didn’t meet deadlines or provide detailed updates as their work progressed, according to Prieto.

“JCPS did not do its due diligence in selecting a vendor,” Prieto told the board, referring to AlphaRoute, which was hired through a noncompetitive process, rather than winning a contract through the request-for-proposal process.

This process is meant only in instances when a vendor is truly the only one that can provide the services sought, not “because a vendor said they were the only ones who could do it,” Prieto said.

Since 2021, JCPS has paid AlphaRoute more than $850,000.

Once AlphaRoute was selected, Prieto said “important considerations” around start times were left out in conversations. For example, the district gave AlphaRoute explicit permission to unmirror routes and allow buses to arrive 40 minutes before classes started and 40 minutes after classes ended. Mirroring is when the same bus picks up and drops off children.

JCPS’ timeline didn’t allow staff to rigorously vet the new routes. and AlphaRoute didn’t meet some deadlines throughout the process. The end product, Prieto summarized, included some very lengthy routes, buses that were scheduled to be at different places in the same time period, some students and even some schools not involved at all and dangerous bus stops.

What happens now?

The majority of the board and Pollio agreed that they need more time to review Prismatic’s report before moving forward.

Board Chair Corrie Shull also said board members need time to look at the community feedback received through a survey that was posted by the district Thursday — more than a month after district leaders began saying cutting magnet transportation was their only option moving forward.

Prieto urged board members to ask more questions before coming to a conclusion, like the exact number of routes that would be cut, the exact numbers of students impacted, and whether the district had considered cutting routes just for elementary magnet students.

“I understand the urgency … We have some time,” she said.

The board is set to meet again Tuesday, April 16. While Prieto said the district doesn’t have to cut magnet transportation to achieve its goal of a reliable busing system, board members could still choose to move in that direction.

Ahead of the decision to postpone the magnet decision, Shull said the board would consider keeping busing for Central High Magnet Academy. The Courier Journal first reported how a lack of magnet transportation would especially harm the historical school, which predominantly serves Black students from impoverished households. Central’s staff and students have been very vocal about their opposition to the plan, with several speaking at the last three board meetings.

Contact Krista Johnson at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: In JCPS busing disaster, audit firm finds a multitude of errors