COLUMBUS, Ohio — Columbus City Schools made major changes to its busing system this week as students returned from winter break. Thousands of students who ride a yellow bus have new bus drivers, new pick-up and drop-off times, and/or new bus stop locations.
On Wednesday, CCS said the Transportation Call Center took hundreds of calls from families requesting the bus routes.
"We've doubled the number of staff who are in our transportation call center to help alleviate all of those calls coming in to the families aren't on hold for a long time," said Scott Varner, executive director of family engagement at CCS. "The way actually the phone system is set up to avoid families having to be on hold for a long time, is the phone system will only take a number of families at one time. And then you get a message that says there's a high volume of calls, we encourage you to call back, so you don't have to sit on hold for a long period of time"
We found dozens of complaints on Facebook from parents whose calls never got through. If you can't get your questions answered by the Transportation Call Center staff, you should try another department that has bus route information.
"Our schools have it, so you can call your child's school directly, the front office will have it, they can call our customer relations line for our families where English might not be their primary language. Our English as a Second Language Hotline also has the transportation information," Varner said.
The district is continuing to recruit drivers. Anyone who is interested can apply here.
To learn more about the bus changes, click here.