Baldwin County Public Schools spent the final days before reopening running every bus route in the district to make sure students could get to and from campus safely following Hurricane Sally, transportation officials said.
With classrooms cleared for the return to school, district leaders turned their attention to the roads themselves, sending drivers out in their assigned buses to retrace each route before students climbed aboard.
“We had our drivers drive their routes in their buses to make sure they could make their turns properly,” said Tony Pollard, the district’s transportation coordinator. “We have 310 drivers, so 310 routes run.”
The dry runs came after two days spent clearing debris left behind by Hurricane Sally, which knocked down trees and scattered wreckage along many of the county’s main roads. Crews worked to reopen those routes so drivers would not encounter blocked streets or hidden hazards once buses were loaded with students.
In some neighborhoods, the damage was severe enough that buses could not safely reach their usual stops. The district set up “designated stops” in those areas, including in the Saluda Ridge neighborhood of Spanish Fort, to keep students and drivers out of heavily damaged sections of road.
“A designated stop is an area we can’t really get into because of the heavy debris, so they’ve contacted parents with a new spot and said hey this is gonna be the drop-off time for the a.m. and the drop-off time for the p.m.,” Pollard said.
District officials said the goal was to have every route verified and every family notified of any changes before the first buses rolled Wednesday morning, minimizing confusion on an already disrupted start to the school year.
The transportation push mirrored broader recovery efforts across Baldwin County following Hurricane Sally, which made landfall in the region and left widespread damage to trees, power lines and roadways. School officials have said they will continue to monitor conditions on affected routes and adjust designated stops as debris removal continues in the hardest-hit neighborhoods.
Parents with questions about their child’s specific route or stop location were encouraged to contact their school directly for the latest information as the district worked through the return-to-school process.