PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, Md. — The Prince George's County Public School system is making changes to its bus routes ahead of the upcoming 2024-2025 school year. WUSA9 attended an information session at Fairmount Heights High School in Landover, Maryland.
According to Keba Baldwin, the Director of Transportation and Central Garage at PGCPS is making five major changes when it comes to transportation:
1. Changing school start and end times
2. Consolidating bus stops
3. Improving walk zones
4. Adding an opt out option, which means the district is asking parents to let them know if they don’t need the bus.
5. Enhancing customer service, which Baldwin says includes improving the stopfinder app, and the notification system used for updating parents on school bus status.
These were all recommendations from an audit and the district says this will improve transportation for the upcoming school year.
“We have worked very tirelessly since February on making these improvements, but we are not setting the expectation too high because we are still short drivers," Baldwin said.
"It’s not perfection but we are working to get this started and it becomes a continuous process to improve so we want to do our best to meet our goals primarily updating our parents and just being transparent about what we’re doing," Baldwin added.
WUSA9 spoke with parent, Tiffany Henderson, who says she's already having issues finding her child's new bus stop.
“In the transportation system I go to look for our new street...can’t find any of that in the system,” said Henderson.
The transportation changes are part of a slew of changes in the district, including new bell schedules.
There are two more information sessions scheduled for parents to get information about the changes for the school year.
Wednesday Aug. 14
*Recorded & livestreamed via PGCPS YouTube
High Point High School (Auditorium)
3601 Powder Mill Road
Beltsville, MD 20705
6 - 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, Aug. 15
Oxon Hill High School (Auditorium)
6701 Leyte Drive
Oxon Hill, MD 20745
6 - 7:30 p.m.
The first day of school for PGCPS is Monday, Aug. 26.