How we got here
The district allocated $4.1 million for transportation in its $1.2 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which trustees adopted at a June 23 board meeting. The decision follows a year of parental backlash after the district cut over 70 bus routes for FY 2024-25 to manage its budget shortfall.
In June 2024, the district approved $58 million in budget cuts, $4.72 million of which came from a reduction in transportation services, according to previous Community Impact reporting.
One regular bus route costs almost $44,000, including a salary for the driver, according to a district transportation services overview from February. A special education bus route costs about $71,500.
Even after the budget cuts, the district still faced a $77.5 million shortfall ahead of FY 2024-25. Chief Financial Officer Karen Smith said June 18 the actual deficit for the year is expected to be closer to $24.3 million.
Approximately 33,000 students were notified last summer that they were ineligible for bus services, Smith said, but actual ridership only decreased by about 12,000 students. Not all students who are eligible for bus services choose to use them, she said.
Jarred Hostetler, a parent with two children in the district, said his 11-year-old daughter had to walk almost 2 miles to and from school each day. His commute to work took anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour and a half, he said, so it became very stressful to coordinate school drop-off and pickup.
“As I started reaching out to other neighborhoods, I realized there’s far worse routes and walks that these children are having to take to get to school,” Hostetler said. “It didn’t seem like anyone was really looking out for the safety of our children, so that’s when I decided that we had to really push to get the buses back.”
Hostetler started a Facebook group for parents, which now has 2,000 members, and was one of many community members to speak against the route cuts at board meetings last school year. Multiple students were hit by cars last fall while commuting to school, sparking widespread safety concerns among parents.
Trustee Natalie Blasingame, who originally voted to approve the transportation changes, said at the June 23 board meeting that she regrets the decision.
“Last year, I sat at this dais and I had data presented to me, and I don’t know that I asked enough questions around transportation,” she said. “I have to sit here and apologize to the public because it wasn’t a good decision to keep children unsafe on their way to school.”
Latest update
Smith said the district anticipates approximately 684 bus routes for the upcoming school year. The district had 673 routes for the 2023-24 school year before officials decided to cut back on costs, according to the transportation report.
Last year, district officials cited bus driver shortages as another justification for the route cuts, an issue Superintendent Doug Killian said was hurting school districts across the state, not just Cy-Fair. CFISD has 628 bus drivers on staff and 46 in training as of July 9, Smith said, and the district is continuing to hire.
“As the district’s population changes, routes are adjusted to maximize efficiency,” Smith said. “Enrollment numbers, ridership and routes are reviewed annually and adjusted as necessary to ensure the most effective and efficient routes for our students.”
Hostetler acknowledged that the district still has funding challenges to address, and parents should talk to their lawmakers to push for more school funding in the coming years.
“We just need to work with [the district] over the next year to make sure we make responsible and sustainable solutions, but we don’t need to compromise student safety while doing that,” he said.
Stay tuned
Bus stop locations and times will be communicated to families in the first week of August, per a district announcement. The first day of school is Aug. 13.
