August 22, 2023

AlphaRoute Clients and Partners,

One of our core values at AlphaRoute is transparency, and with that in mind, we want to share with you information about our work in Kentucky with Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS), which you may have read about in recent media reports.

We have worked with the team at JCPS for more than two years, first to help them construct a more efficient routing solution and second to help adjust their bell times in an effort to improve service, lower the bus count, and shift more middle and high school students to later starts. Like almost every district in the county, they have faced challenges filling open bus driver vacancies: They had more than 900 drivers just a few years ago and currently have fewer than 600. As the district opened schools earlier in August, a number of issues led to disruptions that were so severe school was canceled for several days across the district.

Our goal during this event has been to support the district through this crisis and return service to as close to normal as possible. While the district is making great progress toward this goal, there are still more improvements that need to be made. We are committed to working with the district for the long haul.

We are grateful to JCPS Superintendent Dr. Marty Pollio for his leadership and partnership during this ordeal. We recognize that navigating this was not easy for families, students, teachers, staff, bus drivers, or anyone else involved.

Dr. Pollio has stated on numerous occasions that this crisis was not caused by our product or our team, and that our partnership with the district has been critical to restoring service as quickly as possible.

This event has been a learning experience for our company. We appreciate the efforts reporters and members of the media have undertaken to ensure families and the community at-large are as informed as possible about what led to this disruption. It is only fair that reporters would ask if our company’s product played a role in this disruption. Again, we are grateful to Superintendent Pollio for setting the record straight. At the same time, we have been disappointed by some inaccuracies that have been reported, including that our company uses artificial intelligence software to create bus routes. This is not factual. We are not an AI company, and we do not use AI to create bus routes or bell-time schedules.

We also want to apologize to many of you, who may have received inquiries from the media about our work together. We know that this time of year is one of the busiest and these requests may have been a distraction to your work. If you are inclined to respond to the inquiries, we would be grateful if you would share your experience with AlphaRoute. Our team is also available to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you for your continued support of our work. Whether we have worked with you in the past, or are currently supporting your district, we are grateful for your trust in us.

The work you all do every day is among the most important work happening in our country. We are honored to support you.

With appreciation,

John Hanlon
CEO
AlphaRoute