E26​/27 Route Planner (Transportation

Job Title

Plans/Schedules school bus routes for students (Special Needs/General Education), APS-wide, and performs related analytical activities.

This is a single position class in the Department of Facilities and Operations (Transportation Services) that routes/schedules day-to-day K-12 student transportation, APS-wide.

Guidelines include but are not limited to the Federal and State laws and regulations concerning transportation of K-12 students (and younger);
Arlington School Board Policies and Policy Implementation Procedures (PIPS), especially PIP 50.5-1 (Pupil Transportation) and transportation issues related to support of students with special needs under PIP 25-4.4 (Special Education Programs and Services);
Department of Facilities and Operations office and program procedures; technical manuals for route planning/scheduling software; generally-accepted principles, standards and practices of K-12 bus transport route planning/scheduling; and general references, such as dictionaries and style manuals.

Contacts include but are not limited to co-workers in Transportation Services as well as managers and employees across APS (including principals and instructional staff), parents, and others; there is occasional or incidental contact with private sector personnel, Arlington County government personnel, vendors, the general public and others. The purposes of contacts includes but are not limited to routine and non-routine student transport route planning/scheduling, APS wide;

responding to parent/administrator's inquiries about student transport issues, conducting preliminary analysis of transportation performance data to identify individual driver/vehicle or cluster problems or sub-optimum cluster or fleet performance and options for improvement from route/run/cluster/fleet capability perspectives; and performing related functions.

Schedules bus transportation (routes/runs/stops/times/sequences/buses/etc.) for all students using various computer software, mainly computer-assisted routing and GPS software and covering a multiplicity of factors, including but not limited to data on APS buses/equipment/drivers, students, neighborhoods, road networks, traffic patterns, driver availability and routes. Plans for the school year, after-school programs, summer school, field trips, other special events, etc. Adjust all schedules, as needed, on a daily, short-term, and long-term basis.

Assigns students to routes, completes written schedules, and submits schedules to supervisor for review, approval, and distribution.

Analyzes various types of data for a range of purposes. Examples:
Analyzes route coupling options, mileage data, vehicle load data, fuel costs, etc. to assess costs. Analyzes short-term alternatives that consider weather, construction, etc. to make short-term adjustments or emergency changes in routes/schedules as well as daily rerouting/rescheduling. Provides input from route planning/scheduling and general analytical perspectives on student transport performance and performance improvement options in support of the supervisor. As assigned, analyzes long-term route/schedule attenuates by considering what-if changes in student enrollment levels, school configurations and other variables as well as performance data (such as vehicle loads, late stops, missed stops, and speeds) and performance trends to highlight areas of problematic or suboptimum transportation performance to help identify and suggest options for improvement.

Tracks buses and riders using Geographic Positioning System (GPS) information (if/when equipment is installed by APS) for routine and non-routine purposes, such as emergency parent notification after an accident.

Maintains the security of data of all types.

Stores and retrieves information about general education and special needs students, vehicles, routes/schedules for transporting students, reroutes and reschedules transportation for students, as pertinent to conditions by specifying all parameters; may-use system in automatic mode and let system decide or make decision outside of system, after the system provides options.

On behalf of the supervisor, may coordinate with the Office of Special Education to respond to special needs transportation requests. May develop and maintain record keeping systems and databases on Bus Drivers and Bus Attendants for students to monitor their work and support management decision-making on deployment of resources. May attend Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings where individual student needs are discussed to offer input concerning transportation alternatives.

Maintains situational awareness (weather, traffic, roadwork, early and late school openings and closings, etc.) to make rapid, effective adjustments to transportation services in alignment with environmental conditions and instructional operations.

Use the system to produce required and special reports.

Quality assures data before entry into databases or use in reports.

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