August 9, 2022

Dear Lake Travis ISD Parents and Guardians, 

Since our last parent communication on June 28, 2022, and after implementing aggressive recruitment efforts and providing targeted increases in compensation—including a new starting salary of $23 per hour, our bus driver shortage continues. As a result, we will implement additional changes to our transportation services, effective the first day of school Tuesday, August 16.

• Students who reside outside a two-mile radius from their home campus will be provided transportation on a rotating schedule, meaning bus service will be provided one week on, and one week off. Bus schedules will be posted on the Lake Travis ISD Transportation Department web page beginning Wednesday, August 10. Please note, multi-student households may not necessarily be assigned similar schedules.
  
  

• Students who reside inside a two-mile radius from their home campus will not be provided transportation; while this is not a popular decision to make, this is the most realistic option we can provide with the limited number of bus drivers currently on staff.
  
  

• Special Services routes are not affected and will operate as normal.

Beginning Wednesday, August 10, parents may log into the SMART tag parent portal to determine if transportation services will be available to their child. Please note, if you have not registered for transportation services, there will be no route assignment for you to view in SMART tag. Lake Travis ISD uses SMART tag for all students who ride the bus to and from school. Each of our buses is outfitted with a Samsung tablet equipped with a Radio Frequency Identification reader, mobile connectivity, and Global Positioning System. Similar to systems used in public transportation, students place their campus-supplied SMART tag ID badges on the tablet’s sensor when loading and unloading their bus. Badges will be distributed to students at the campus level during the first week of school.

We sincerely appreciate your patience, understanding, and support as we continue to do  everything possible to safely and efficiently meet the expected increase in student ridership  while aggressively addressing our driver shortage. Rest assured, we will continue to monitor our transportation challenges daily and look forward to restoring additional services as conditions improve. If you or someone you know is interested in driving a bus for LTISD, we encourage you to contact our Transportation Department at 512-533-6070, or at leeda@ltisdschools.org. No experience is needed. We provide all training and full benefits, and our drivers get holidays and summers off. 

Sincerely,

Brad Bailey
Assistant Superintendent of Operations