Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools: Camp CMS: Buses, Breakfasts And Buildings

Press release from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools:

7/2/2021

Getting ready for an academic school year can be difficult for the CMS Transportation Department, but staff members had an extra challenge this year. They had to arrange transportation for a new summer learning program in addition to getting ready for the 2021-2022 academic year.

Kevin Devore, director of routing and logistics, and Delvico Dunn, director of fleet management, "were instrumental in getting this done," said Adam Johnson, executive director of transportation. Their teams established approximately 50,000 miles of bus routes and assigned approximately 24,000 students to buses, in addition to the actual rollout of 428 buses. Planning for both began in February when the state said school districts would need a summer program to help students who suffered learning loss during the pandemic.

"Initial planning began in the middle to end of February with other departments to gather a collective understanding of the support systems needed to make Camp CMS successful," Devore said.

Camp CMS was a huge undertaking. When comparing the number of planned bus riders and buses operating for camps to a normal year across North Carolina, Camp CMS would be the fourth-largest transportation operation in the state. The difference in planning for Camp CMS and the regular academic year was a smaller window of time and the constant changes with the pandemic.

"Planning from the maintenance side was based on other moving parts, as well as our routing department," said Dunn. "We looked at the number of students needing transportation along with bell times and the number of sites CMS was planning to open. From that data, our routing department projected the number of buses needed for the program. I worked hand-in-hand with Mr. Devore and the operations side as well. The numbers can be projected; however, we still needed to account for staffing (drivers/monitors)."

The main hurdle for Devore and Dunn was wrapping up the 2020-2021 school year, planning for Camp CMS and being fully prepared for the 2021-2022 school year. Both are proud of what their staff accomplished during the pandemic.

"Our technicians and staff worked hard through the pandemic," Dunn said. He and Devore thank everyone who worked long hours to make Camp CMS a reality.

Two additional departments also worked hard to launch Camp CMS – School Nutrition Services and Building Services. During a recent Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education meeting, Shawn Turner, director of building services support, presented the following information about the first week of Camp CMS for these two departments.

School Nutrition Services served:

- 34,440 breakfasts in the first week.

- 61,892 lunches in the first week.

- 34,488 meals in three-day bundles.

- 130,820 total meals in the first week.

Building Services had:

- Custodial staff working Monday through Friday to ensure thorough cleaning of each facility.

- Increased garbage collection Monday through Friday.

- 581 work orders requested in the first week.

- 293 work orders completed in the first week.

This press release was produced by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. The views expressed here are the author’s own.