Hold the bus: Transportation director for Prince George’s Co. schools steps down after rocky start to academic year – WTOP News

Prince George’s County Public Schools is changing leadership in its Transportation Department after a rocky start to the school year left thousands of students waiting for bus assignments.

Keba Baldwin is stepping down as director of transportation, PGCPS said Sunday.

Mark Fossett, a former chief operating officer for the school system, will serve as acting director and lead a new transportation transition team.

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The district did not say Baldwin was fired or directly link their departure to the transportation problems. PGCPS said he will help support the transition.

The leadership change comes as the district says it has cleared an original backlog of approximately 10,000 students awaiting bus assignments.

“This is about more than responding to the challenges of one week,” Superintendent Shawn Joseph said in a release. “It is about building the systems, capacity and culture necessary to provide families with the reliable service they deserve.”

Transportation staff and a 27-member surge team worked through the weekend to assign routes to every student in the original backlog.

PGCPS said the surge team will remain in place as the district handles new enrollments, address changes and other routine transportation requests.

Fossett and the transition team will focus on stabilizing bus service, improving customer service and addressing critical vacancies within the department.

The district is also beginning a route optimization phase to address routing errors, long ride times and stop locations.

Updated bus assignments are available through the Chipmunk application and will also be available through ParentVUE following system synchronization.

PGCPS will hold a telephone town hall for families Wednesday at 6 p.m. to discuss transportation operations and answer questions.

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