The Stafford County School Board met with acting superintendent Chris R. Fulmer and executive director of transportation Karim Johnson Tuesday night in a special meeting called to address the busing crisis that left thousands of Stafford students without a route in the first two weeks of the school year.
Fulmer expressed his disappointment and remorse that, after what he said were years of improvement with transportation, the situation was as bad as it was.
“Clearly we regressed this year with our transportation, and we need to be better,” he said.
Buses weren’t the issue this year, but new software, new staff, and new office structures contributed to the issues, Fulmer said.
“It was too much, all at once,” he said.
The plan to use new routing software began in August 2023, said Fulmer, and staff started training on it this past March.
“We had some challenges with how the data needed to be input,” he said. “The vendor has been very responsive and they’ve been addressing some of the functionality requests. But we should have been ahead of that.”
Fulmer noted that the division’s technology department should have been more heavily involved and that the process for routing special education students needs to be modernized.
Two weeks into the school year, most students have been correctly routed with a few exceptions for those with special requests or specialized transportation.
“We can be at 100% and say that we have everybody (routed), but there’s always requests coming for bus stop changes or school transfer changes. So routing is never 100% done,” he said. “But we now actually need people to let us know if they still have issues.”
Fulmer noted that there are remaining challenges with dismissal times and routes may need to be added or consolidated.
Board members said they were surprised to learn that some routes pick students up as early as 4:50 a.m. to take them to specialty centers or the Commonwealth Governor’s Schools.
“We need to tell people, these are great programs and you should want to do them, but you are going to have a more-than-average bus route,” said Maya Guy, who represents the Aquia district. “I’m disappointed that one of the lessons that was not learned is that the communication with the school board must be quicker. We should have known two weeks before.”
Fulmer assured the board that a detailed analysis would be made of the situation. Some board members asked that an independent third party be brought in to investigate instead of relying on school staff.
The board agreed that an opt-in system would help the transportation office better predict needs before the start of the next school year. “We know about one-third of our students don’t need bus transportation. That’s roughly 10,000 students,” Fulmer said.
He added that by getting families to fill out the transportation survey, staff can better route students and fill buses more efficiently.
Hartwood District representative Alyssa Halstead expressed dismay at the division’s reliance on technology.
“I have very serious concerns about the continued overreliance on technology, to be honest with you,” Halstead said. “I am not a fan of the constant app tracking buses because … it’s causing undue stress for parents.”
In other action, the board heard from Lionel White, director of facilities planning, on the redistricting process for high school no. 6, set to open August 2026. The first community meeting to discuss the new boundaries will be Sept. 3 at Colonial Forge High School at 6 p.m. The school division has set up a dedicated website for redistricting.
