Spokane Public Schools is looking at learning loss and transportation as major areas to focus on this Spring.

SPOKANE, Wash. - As many families get ready for the holidays, schools in our area are looking at improvements ahead of the spring semester.

One of the issues top of mind, are concerns about how your kids are getting to school.
 
Spokane Public Schools is looking at learning loss and transportation as major areas to focus on this spring.
 
From not getting picked up, to being dropped off hours after their supposed to.
 
Students in the Spokane Public School district have had to deal with Durham's transportation woes for far too long.
 
"She went out to her bus stop yesterday morning and called mom at 8:50 and said there's no bus here. And that's how we found out," Laura Braunstein said.
 
"The bus was missing completely, it was in Coeur d'Alene, they had no replacement bus, and they had no answers," Brandy Teilborg said.
 
"Our parents were frustrated and through that communication, they were asking us to look for some alternatives," Shawn Jordan, the Chief Operations Officer for Spokane Public Schools said. 
 
So, they did. This year, SPS increased the school walk zone radius, determining who can be picked up by the bus or who should walk, from 1 mile to 1 and a half miles for middle and high schools in the district.
 
The goal? Alleviating the stress on Durham buses by making fewer students eligible to be on a school bus route.
 
"It wasn't what we wanted to do we were in a position again because of the driver shortage that's what we felt like we had to do," he said.
 
And it seems to have worked.
 
On-time performance by Durham has improved, from 80% in early September to 93% at the end of October.
 
Besides that, SPS is partnering with Spokane Transit Authority to help bus high school students.
 
"They are transporting about 80% of our eligible high school riders," he said.
 
Jordan said Durham also has a lot more drivers now than this time last year.
 
"Last spring, we were at 85 drivers and again with over 90 routes which is the reason why there were go-backs, what they call them, to go back and pick up a route that didn't have a driver," he said "As of the last count they were up to 121 drivers total. We're right now running 101 routes."
 
Although it's not back to 175 drivers pre-pandemic, Jordan said this is a solid step forward.
 
Busing isn't the only issue SPS has to worry about. According to new district data, elementary students are still dealing with COVID-caused learning loss, at least with math and language arts.
 
According to documents,  the average elementary school student gained 6.4 months of performance when the district's goal for math is 10 months, basically a school year.
 
For language arts, students should be at 12 months but are instead at 10.9.
 
Kindergarten readiness in Spokane stands at 29% far below Washington State's average of 50.4%.
 
Wednesday night, school leaders will talk about solutions.

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