Broken Arrow Schools Making Buses More Efficient

School buses cover a lot of ground in their day-to-day routes, but it takes a lot of planning to make those routes as efficient as possible.

The district services roughly 115 square miles, and about 10,000 students take the bus to and from school, which requires planning bus routes each year to make sure that buses are on time and that they aren't overloaded with students.

Route planning typically starts in July each year, but routes have to be completed by the first week of August. However, there are challenges that go into planning routes that can change each year.

Tammie White, the transportation manager for Broken Arrow Public Schools, said redistricting is a major factor in planning bus routes.

"When we do redistricting, that causes a lot of changes within our district, and it can affect the timing of the routes as well," White said. "When new neighborhoods pop up... then we got to figure out how to route buses through there without overloading the buses."

Tammie also said the district works with the city to figure out what work or construction is planned so the district can plan routes around it.

"The City of Broken Arrow is really good about letting us know of any road construction that’s going to be coming up, which gives our routing planner enough time to go in and see which routes this is going to affect and how we need to divert the buses to avoid certain areas," White said.