'We will not cancel class': Here is what we know about the JCPS bus driver situation

More than 90 Jefferson County Public Schools bus drivers called in on Friday, prompting the district to tell parents to expect delays in the transportation of their children.

But JCPS spokeswoman Carolyn Callahan said no routes were canceled, and she said the district will not cancel classes Monday if a similar situation occurs.

"The people this hurts the most is our students and we need our students to be at school in order to help them succeed. And that's who ... this is hurting when drivers aren't here and we can't get kids to school. You know, that's why we're so upset because it's the negative impact on our students," Callahan said on Friday afternoon.

She previously told The Courier Journal during a phone interview Thursday evening that if routes are canceled, parents would be responsible for taking their children to school.

JCPS originally had an off day scheduled for Monday, but it decided to hold classes that day to help make up for days missed at the beginning of the school year when the district's new transportation plan went awry, causing hundreds of students to get home hours late on the first day.

Callahan said drivers will get paid on Monday in response to concerns they might not be.

"If you don't show up Friday or you do not show up Monday you lose your $6 Attendance bonus," Callahan said. "So any driver who did not show up today will not get that $6 Attendance bonus. Same for Monday."

There is no school on Tuesday, which is Election Day in Kentucky.

Here is what we know about the situation:

How many drivers have to call in for JCPS to cancel bus routes?

Callahan said on Thursday evening that there's "no magic number" for how many drivers need to call out for routes to be canceled.

She said instead it would be a case of how many drivers call in by a certain time in the morning.

Callahan said JCPS has approximately 570 drivers, and The Courier Journal previously reported the district has about 600 bus routes.

On Friday morning, 87 drivers called in.

Will JCPS cancel school because of a bus driver sickout?

No. "We will not cancel class," Callahan said on Friday morning.

She said if the situation dictates, the district will take the rare step of canceling bus routes, instead. The district has never done that before, she said on Thursday evening.

How will JCPS parents be notified if a bus route is canceled?

Parents would be contacted by text messages, and through the Edulog app if their routes are canceled, Callahan said.

Is NTI (non-traditional instruction) an option for kids if their routes are canceled?

No, Callahan said.

The Kentucky Department of Education's guidance on NTI days - when students work remotely via their laptops - allows for them to be used for health or safety reasons. It lists weather or illness as examples.

If kids miss school because of the busing situation, would their absences be excused?

Callahan said the district wants to excuse the absences but added: "We're just making sure we can do that."

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How late are children expected to come home late?

Although she did not know when, she did anticipate "there will absolutely be delays" in drop-offs Friday since the number of bus drivers that called in sick increased to 92 for the afternoon routes.

Callahan said because of the shortage of drivers, and the fact that routes will not be canceled, there will be bigger delays in the afternoon than there were in the morning. But she did not specify how many children were late Friday morning.

What is JCPS telling families?

Callahan said some schools are notifying parents if their bus is going to be late since they have communication with the compounds.

What problems has the busing system had this year?

JCPS implemented a new busing plan this year, created by AlphaRoute, a Boston firm that used artificial intelligence to cut the number of bus stops in the district by nearly half.

But the plan ended up causing a chaos when school began this year, which Superintendent Marty Pollio called a "transportation disaster."

Classes were canceled for days while issues were ironed out.

Why are bus drivers upset?

John Stovall, president of Teamsters Local 783, which represents JCPS bus drivers, said there are multiple issues. But "the biggest gripe of everything" is the student discipline, or lack of discipline. Stovall also shared drivers are exhausted from having to work extra hours, learning a new route system and "not being heard by the district."

"They're tired of ... working 10 hours a day, then you get cussed out by kids," Stovall said. "It's just the accumulation of the long hours and the screwed-up Alpha routing system."

Are the bus drivers on strike?

No.

According to Stovall, public sector employees cannot legally strike, but instead can participate in a job action.

"I can't sanction the job action without putting their jobs in the contract in jeopardy," Stovall said. "This wasn't something that we [Teamsters Local 783] sanctioned."

A strike requires authorization from a vote from the membership, similar to what Louisville saw with the UPS and Ford contract negotiations earlier this year, but public sector employees cannot do this.

Could drivers be fired for this?

Stovall said if JCPS went to the lengths to determine who started the job action, that bus driver could be fired. However, he doubts the district will go through that effort given the ongoing bus driver shortage.

"It's not going to get corrected overnight," Stovall said. "It's a national crisis across the country, every school district and county is having trouble getting bus drivers."

Editor Nick Hollkamp contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: JCPS bus driver sickout: Here's what parents should know