On August 19, 2025, Bismarck Public Schools launched a two-tier bus system. This development followed years of study, community engagement, and planning, all aimed at ensuring safe, efficient, and cost-effective transportation for students. Below, you’ll find the rationale, benefits, and a detailed timeline showing the careful work that went into this change.

Need for Change 

At BPS, most general education busing is provided by Harlow's, while the BPS Transportation Department handles special education, preK, and activities routes. In 202, ongoing issues with the BPS transportation system necessitated the formation of a committee to investigate possible solutions. 

The following issues were identified as the most severe and persistent:

• Bus driver shortages were creating unreliable and inconsistent service. Sometimes buses wouldn't show up to pick up students, and sometimes they would arrive extremely late. 
• Ride times were extremely long for many students. Some students were on a bus for two hours. 
• Student pick-up was subject to prolonged delays. Some students had to wait over an hour just to get on a bus after school.
• Budget constraints and increasing transportation costs year after year (see chart below).

Addressing the Problem

In 2023, the Bismarck School Board directed BPS administration to seek outside help in addressing the district's complex transportation challenges. After a Request for Proposal (RFP) process, TransPar was hired as a consultant to evaluate the district's busing operations. 

TransPar identified a two-tier bus model, a common strategy employed by districts nationwide where bus routes are staggered between different groups of students, as the most viable solution to the district's needs. The two-tier system was promoted for the following benefits:

• Shorter bus rides: No student would ride for longer than an hour under normal circumstances. 
• Later elementary pickups: No students would be picked up prior to 6:30 AM.
• Fewer buses needed: The district could reduce the number of required buses by nine.
• End-of-day supervision reduced: The majority of buses would now be on-site at dismissal.
• Separated transportation tiers: Elementary and secondary students would be separated into different routes.
• Reallocated funding: The new system could reduce overall transportation costs, allowing savings to be directed to in-school instructional aide support. 

Community Conversation 

Since adopting a two-tier system would have a great impact on all students and modify school start and end times, the district undertook an extensive feedback collection process in the fall of 2024 to ensure all stakeholders were informed and had an opportunity to share their voices. 

BPS engaged families in the following ways:

• Three community forums were held with presentations to explain the proposed two-tier system. Smaller breakout groups at these forums allowed attendees to share their opinions and concerns. 
• Smaller presentations and feedback sessions were held at twelve PTO/PAC meetings across the district. An additional presentation was made to the Indigenous Parent Advisory Committee. 
• A video explaining the proposed system was shared with staff, along with a survey to collect feedback.
• A video and survey were also shared with all families in the district. 

Implementation 

In November of 2024, the two-tier system was shared with the Bismarck School Board, and a recommendation was made to adopt the system. The Board reconvened in January of 2025 and approved the system. Once the system was approved, BPS began to work with TransPar to route all students. Routes continued to be adjusted over the summer as new students enrolled, and finalized routes were shared with parents on August 12, 2025. The system then officially began operating on August 19, 2025, the first day of the 2025-2026 school year. 

Current Status 

BPS will continue to monitor busing operations to ensure optimal transportation services are provided to families. 

While refinements and improvements continue to be made to the two-tier system, comparing this year's operations with last year's helps to demonstrate the efficiency and benefits offered by the new busing model:

Measured	Last Year (2024-2025)	This Year (2025-2026)
Number of morning routes.	52	39
Number of Harlow's drivers.	47	45
Number of BPS drivers.	17	14
Average miles per route (Harlow's).	19.3	18.6
Average miles per route (BPS).	30	16.8
How many students are picked up before 6:30 AM.	10 students, with 6:00 AM earliest pickup.	29 students, with 6:14 earliest pickup.
Total number of students transported.	5,063	5,490
Projected transportation costs.	$6,845,289	$6,210,392
BPS Activities miles driven.	225,000 over 2,445 trips	TBD
Total miles driven by Harlow's.	518,850	TBD

 

Comprehensive Timeline

2022

• January 10, 2022: Bismarck School Board approves transportation services contract with Harlow's. See the Harlow's contract for additional information. 
• February 24, 2022: BPS and Harlow's formed a Transportation Committee to evaluate busing operations and address challenges.  
• March 23, 2022: The Transportation Committee met to discuss transportation updates. 
• April 22, 2022: The Transportation Committee met to evaluate transportation operations. 
• December 21, 2022: The Transportation Committee reconvened to discuss transportation operations. 

2023

• March 2023: Transportation Committee meetings continued with BPS and Harlow's to evaluate transportation challenges.
• April 24, 2023: The Bismarck School Board directed BPS administration to request proposals for a Transportation Analysis. See the meeting minutes and meeting broadcast for additional details. 
• May, 25, 2023: The Transportation Committee met again to discuss recent transportation developments.
• June 2023: A Request for Proposal (RFP) was shared with the community. See RFP document for more details.
• July, 31, 2023: A contract addendum was signed, instituting a 4% increase in the cost of Harlow's busing services. See Harlow's contract addendum for additional information. 
• August 12, 2023: Finalized bus routes were shared with families for the 2023-2024 school year. 
• September 2023: BPS interviewed 3 companies that submitted proposals to conduct the Transportation Analysis. See TransPar's proposal for additional information. 
• October 9, 2023: The Bismarck School Board awarded the RFP to TransPar, and a consulting agreement was signed. See meeting minutes and meeting broadcast for additional details.
• October 11, 2023: TransPar study of BPS transportation began. See TransPar consulting services contract for more information. 
• November 8, 2023: TransPar met with BPS to collaborate on the analysis of district transportation. 

2024

• January 11, 2024: Transportation challenges were discussed at a School Board workshop. See meeting minutes for additional information. 
• February 9, 2024: TransPar met with the district to review the transportation analysis and discuss operations. 
• February 26, 2024: TransPar met with the district to discuss the ongoing transportation analysis. 
• February 27, 2024: Transportation was discussed at an Operational Excellence Committee meeting. See meeting minutes for additional information. 
• March 4, 2024: BPS met with TransPar to discuss the results of the transportation analysis. 
• March 11, 2024: Results from TransPar analysis presented to Bismarck School Board. See the detailed TransPar Report and meeting broadcast for more information. 
• April 10, 2024: The TransPar report was discussed at an Operational Excellence Committee meeting. See meeting minutes for additional information. 
• April 26, 2024: BPS engaged TransPar in an additional meeting to discuss district busing operations and items from the TransPar report. 
• May 15, 2024: A transportation timeline was discussed by the Operational Excellence Committee. A need for increased public input was identified, with public forums scheduled for the fall. See meeting minutes for additional information. 
• June 4, 2024: TransPar met with BPS Transportation to continue collaboration. 
• August 13, 2024: Finalized bus routes shared with families for the 2024-2025 school year.
• September 10, 2024: The proposed two-tier bus system was presented for feedback to the Northridge Elementary PTO.
• September 12, 2024: Routing contract was signed with TransPar.
• September 26, 2024: An open community forum on two-tier transportation was held at Simle Middle School. View the presentation slides for additional information. 
• September 27, 2024: A contract addendum was signed with Harlow's, increasing the cost of general education transportation by 4.25%. See the Harlow's contract addendum for additional information. 
• October 1, 2024: The proposed two-tier bus system was presented for feedback to PTOs at Elk Ridge, Lincoln, and Solheim Elementary Schools.
• October 3, 2024: An open community forum on two-tier transportation was held at Wachter Middle School. See video of the superintendent's presentation and the media notice for more information. 
• October 7, 2024: An open community forum on two-tier transportation was held at Horizon Middle School. The presentation slides were reused from the earlier Simle date. A presentation was also given at the Silver Ranch PAC meeting. 
• October 8, 2024: BPS administrators delivered presentations about the two-tier system and bell times to parent groups at Prairie Rose Elementary, Century High School, Legacy High School, Horizon Middle School, and Will-Moore Elementary. 
• October 10, 2024: The superintendent met with the Centennial Elementary School PTO to discussion bell times and the proposed two-tier system.
• October 14, 2024: The superintendent met with the Sunrise Elementary School PTO to discuss bell times and the proposed two-tier system. Information was also shared at the Wachter Middle School PAC meeting.
• October 14, 2024: The superintendent shared an update on community feedback at the Bismarck School Board meeting. See the meeting agenda and meeting broadcast for more information.
• October 21, 2024: A presentation about the two-tiered system was shared with all BPS staff, along with a feedback survey. See presentation slides for more information. 
• October 29, 2024: The superintendent presented the two-tier bus system and took feedback at the Indigenous Parents Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting.
• November 12, 2024: A video and survey were shared with all stakeholders in order to collect informed feedback.
• November 25, 2024: TransPar met with BPS and provided additional updates. 
• November 25, 2024: The two-tier system and community feedback were shared with the Bismarck School Board at their regularly scheduled meeting. See meeting minutes and meeting broadcast for additional information. 

2025

• January 6, 2025: The School Board discussed transportation at a workshop. See meeting minutes for additional information. 
• January 13, 2025: The Bismarck School Board approved the two-tier bus system at their regularly scheduled meeting. Information was sharing with the community through email and social media. See meeting minutes and meeting broadcast for additional information. 
• January 14, 2025: Two-tier system and bell times were discussed at the Horizon Middle School PAC. 
• February 3, 2025: BPS administrators met with CREA and Bismarck Parks and Recreation to discuss child care in relation to changing bell times. 
• March 7, 2025: BPS met with TransPar to discuss the routing process. BPS routers received training with TransPar. Training is ongoing, with three routers receiving a combined 114 hours in training so far. 
• April 4, 2025: BPS administration met with BLAST leaders to discuss the program's operation for the upcoming school year in relation to changing bell times. 
• April 11, 2025: Bussing and bell times were discussed at the Legacy High School PAC meeting.
• April 23, 2025: BPS shared finalized school start and end times with families through email, social media, and a press release. See the local news article for additional information. 
• April 23, 2025: Transportation contract discussions were undertaken with Harlow's. Revisions to the contract were made to address the two-tier bus system. See the revised transportation services document for more information. 
• April 25, 2025: Additional training services were purchased from Harlow's to provide education to the district's in-house routers. See the training services agreement for more information. 
• May 8, 2025: BPS and the Bismarck Education Association (BEA) engaged in negotiations to address changes in teacher schedules and contracts necessitated by changing bell times. 
• May 13, 2025: Moses Elementary School discussed upcoming transportation and bell time changes at their PTO/Town Hall meeting. 
• May 21, 2025: BPS and BEA met again for contract negotiations pertaining to changes required by new bell times. 
• August 12, 2025: Finalized bus schedules were shared with BPS families.
• August 19, 2025: The two-tier bus system was implemented on the first day of the 2025-2026 school year. 
• August 21, 2025: BPS allocated additional staff to a call center to address transportation-related concerns. 
• September 2, 2025: Two-tier busing concerns were addressed at the Lincoln Elementary School PTO meeting.