Will Fayette County have in-person classes Thursday? School buses are on test runs again

Buses were out testing roads in Fayette County for the second straight day Wednesday morning as school officials try to determine if in-person classes will be canceled again Thursday.

A cancellation would mark the seventh consecutive day the district has not had in-person classes after a major winter storm dropped more than seven inches of snow and about an inch of ice on Central Kentucky.

‘We are sending our buses out again today to drive some of our routes. We remain in constant communication with city leaders and will make a decision on classes (Thursday) as soon as possible,’ district spokesperson Dia Davidson-Smith said Wednesday morning.

The bulk of the snow and ice fell on Jan. 6-7, but many roads and sidewalks in Lexington remain covered. Students had four traditional snow days last week and three learning-from-home, or non-traditional instruction days, this week.

On Tuesday night, Fayette Superintendent Demetrus Liggins told families that when the district’s transportation team took buses out Tuesday to test the safety of bus routes, drivers experienced slick road conditions, with some having to even be rescued by tow trucks.

One of the bus drivers who tested the roads was Joseph Haskins, a relief bus driver. Haskins drove in the Georgetown Street, Oak Street and Charles Avenue areas and during a news conference Wednesday morning described his route as surprisingly good.

This is the first time he said he remembers running routes as a safety precaution in his 39 years in Lexington.

“We want to make sure that everybody is safe,” Haskins said. “We do not want to have an accident. We do not want a kid to slide and fall underneath a bus wheel or anything.”

As many as 119 streets and neighborhoods were identified as inaccessible for buses, including Sandersville, Southpoint, Castlewood, Highland Park and Carducci. Liggins said that equated to thousands of students who need access to bus transportation to attend school.

He said conditions were not safe for students.

City: We didn’t have full bus route information

Lexington city officials said Tuesday they did not have complete information from district officials on bus routes until Tuesday.

Lexington Environmental Quality and Public Works Commissioner Nancy Albright said at a council meeting the school system provided the city with bus routes in spring 2024, but they provided additional routes as late as Tuesday morning,

The city has struggled to clear those neighborhood streets because of the accumulation of multiple rounds of snow, ice and more snow, city officials have said.

When bus drivers test a route, they report the road conditions to the school district’s dispatch, according to Haskins. Dispatch then shares the information with a director, who is communicating with the city.

Snow plows are not effective at removing ice when temperatures are below freezing. Temperatures have remained below 32 degrees for much of the past 10 days.

School district officials did not immediately respond to the city’s claims.

Challenges bus drivers are facing

While the main roads in Lexington are in good condition, Haskins said smaller side streets are still covered in ice. The icy conditions greatly affect the special needs buses, who travel down those routes.

“You have the special needs buses that have to go down and let ramps down. Some of them are passable, but when it gets to letting the ramp down for the wheelchairs, it’s almost impossible because of where the snow has been pushed back against the driveways,” Haskins said.

A lot of the sidewalks also are not clear, which creates more safety concerns.

“Trying to tell kids that are on bus stops to be still, don’t throw ice ... It’s a very high risk,” Haskins said.

Haskins also noted that people have misconceptions about how well buses can maneuver in winter weather.

“Contrary to what a lot of people think, they think they see a big heavy piece of equipment like a school bus and that it can travel through anything, and that’s not true,” he said.

“These buses, if it’s a lot of rain, they have a tendency to lose traction as well. On ice, it’s 10 times worse.”

When school does return to in-person learning, Haskins stressed that parents should remain patient with the bus drivers.

“When you’re dealing with a district as big as Fayette County, you have to really be patient because whatever they implement is not going to please everybody,” he said.

“We are the hardest people to please as humans, so we just have to take it day by day and remember that safety is everything for your kids. And not only for your kids, but our drivers as well.”

This story was originally published January 15, 2025 at 10:04 AM.