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The first day of classes at Clark County Public Schools ended with an apology from Superintendent Dustin Howard to parents.

The reason was a pair of transportation delays: bus drivers left the district bus garage late for dismissal at George Rogers Clark High School, and then there was mass confusion among high school students on which bus they needed to ride home.

The delays at GRC caused another delay for dismissal at Robert D. Campbell Junior High School.

“First-day-of-school issues sometimes turn into first-week-of-school issues, and what I wanted to make sure in my tenure as superintendent is that we are being very transparent and aggressive in our communication,” Howard said about why he issued the apology.

The district decided to take its time to solve the high school quandary to not to exacerbate the situation further.

“What we wanted to do, we did not leave kids behind,” Howard said. “We chose to be patient and make sure that every kid was on the bus. It took us an extra 40 minutes.”

The alternative would have been to send the buses whether all its riders were on or not. A situation that Howard said would have been a logistical nightmare.

“Then you have a situation where you have 300 kids left at GRC, and maybe their parent could come and get them. We didn’t want to go that route,” Howard said.

To ensure there was not a repeat in the coming days, the district amplified its efforts to educate students on dismissal routines and expectations.

More structure and supervision have also been incorporated into the dismissal process at GRC.

And modifications were made to existing routes to ensure that the buses reached their next pick up point faster.

So far, the results have been promising, as ten to 15 minutes were shaved off of dismissal time each day since.

“We’ve tightened it down,” Howard said. “We will continue to get better the next couple of weeks. If not, we will make little adjustments along the way.”

If district officials and parents were concerned about the delay on opening day, they were justified in doing so.

The week prior, transportation issues in Jefferson County forced that school district to delay the rest of its opening week.

Howard said that Clark County’s issue paled compared to the one the state’s largest school district faced.

“There were not any major issues as far as individual buses or the number of drivers. It simply was finalizing timing,” Howard said. “When you throw in the number of parent pick ups and drop offs on the first few days of school, it is increased tremendously.”

According to Howard, an increase in car traffic is not uncommon since many parents want to “hug and kiss” and personally retrieve their student at the day’s end as the new school year gets underway.

Two developments are on the horizon that will hopefully help the district avoid further incidents.

After Labor Day, it will add two new buses to its fleet with room for over 80 passengers.

The district also currently has 70 drivers for 55 routes and will add another seven drivers to its transportation ranks in the coming weeks.

Howard said the swell in bus drivers is owed to the district’s board of education.

“I really want to commend the board of education on what they did with our pay increases because it has allowed us to really recruit and get bus drivers in,” he said.