Springfield school board tackles transport, football issues

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Springfield Public Schools hosted a public board meeting to discuss new developments for the upcoming school year, including an expansion of school transportation.

Keith Adams, the Director of Transportation, announced plans to increase the number of drivers and buses to improve efficiencies, expanding eligibility to an additional 1,100 students who attend elementary, intermediate and K-8 schools.

This year, SPS lowered the requirement to be eligible from 1.5 miles or more to 1 mile.

Currently, over 7,000 Springfield Public Schools students are registered to ride the school bus. The proposed expansion would make several hundred more eligible.

"Transportation is a huge barrier for some families," said Adams. "The more we can get that down, the better. So, this plan just finds efficiencies in some of the other things that we do so that we can apply those resources to expand."

Adams tells Ozarks First that they hope to bring middle schools down to 1 mile as well, which could potentially register over 700 more students.

Jeffrey Pettibone, President of the Missouri State Teachers Association, emphasized at the meeting the need for more funding amid federal cuts affecting school districts statewide.

We need greater investment to truly move forward," said Pettibone. "Without it, public education funding will be chipped away year after year in favor of privatized options."

The board also addressed the controversial decision to cancel Central High School's varsity football season, citing safety concerns.

During public comments, parents expressed their dissatisfaction with the cancellation, arguing that the decision overlooked the impact on school pride and student opportunities.

The Springfield Public Schools board meeting highlighted significant changes and challenges for the district, with transportation expansion plans and debates over extracurricular activities taking center stage.

All facts in this report were gathered by journalists employed by OzarksFirst.com. Artificial intelligence tools were used to reformat from a broadcast script into a news article for our website. This report was edited and fact-checked by OzarksFirst.com staff before being published.