Dallas ready to take over school bus routes

DALLAS - It was not exactly starting from scratch but it’s close to that as the Dallas Independent School District launches its bus service.

This is the first year the school district is operating its own transportation after Dallas County Schools was dissolved.

Dr. Kayne Smith, the district’s executive director of Transportation Services, joined Good Day to talk about the transition.

“We received 998 buses from DCS so in July we rebranded to say Dallas ISD on the side,” Smith said. “We have a number of our routes for our campuses and magnet programs, innovation academies at the entire school district boundary. So those can be long routes and we are going around pretty much all 384 square miles of Dallas to pick up students to bring them to school.”

Many of the drivers that were with Dallas County Schools are now on the payroll with Dallas ISD. And the district is still hiring.

School starts Monday in Dallas.