LOUISVILLE, Ky. — It’s been two weeks since the start of the school year at Jefferson County Public Schools and the school district reports traffic and transportation are showing signs of improvement.

What You Need To Know

  • Jefferson County Public Schools said at an Aug. 20 meeting of the school board that its transportation plan is showing signs of improvement

  • The district is looking to improve Audubon Traditional Elementary and Fransley Middle School

  • A retired couple waited at least an hour to pick up their grandchild 

  • A district spokesperson said wait times have improved since the first day of school

Twice a week, grandparents Jan and Gary Hamilton weave through the car line that snakes around Audubon Traditional Elementary.

“Oh, yeah, I do crossword puzzles or sudoku, whatever, while I’m in line,” Jan said.

“And I just read the news,” Gary said. “Yes, he lets me know what the latest headline is,” Jan said. 

They leave their house by 2:30 p.m. to get to the school for pickup and they say it’s not that bad once they get in the line.

“The first day it was an hour? It’s about that. It was an hour, wasn’t it? It was a little longer on the first day, but, for us last Wednesday, yeah, so about 40 minutes,” Jan said.

JCPS said the car line finished at 5:20 p.m. on the first day of school on Aug. 8 and the last two days, the car line finished just before 4 p.m.

“We had a couple of areas that we still have work to do. We have seen improvements on some of our sites since the first day,” said Rob Fulk, JCPS Chief Operations Officer.

During Tuesday’s JCPS School Board meeting, the district gave an update saying they made traffic improvements since the first day of school.

“I believe Male [High School] the first day took quite a while to clear. They are now clearing in the afternoon by about 2:40 from the traffic riders. Audubon [Traditional Elementary] is an area that we need to continue to look at. We are looking at the possibility of doing some paving there that will be a capital project that will take some time. Farnsley [Middle School] is another area that we look at and Chenoweth [Elementary School] we know too there the construction on Brownsboro Road is impacting the bus lines and creating a large car ride or traffic pattern there,” Fulk said.

Also during Tuesday’s meeting, Superintendent Marty Pollio made a point that road construction is a factor in traffic congestion. 

A district spokesperson said Audubon Elementary also has 100 additional car riders this year than last year.

Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled Farnsley Middle School. The error has been corrected. (Aug. 22, 2024)

Related Stories