Hawkins County Schools holds town hall regarding issue with new software

HAWKINS COUNTY, Tenn. (WCYB) — A town hall meeting was called on Friday to address issues with the rollout of a new software that determines the bus routes.

The meeting was held at Surgoinsville Middle School and parents were asked to address their concerns over the back-to-school transportation issues.

Community members raised concerns about length of bus ride times, failure to be notified in the event of an accident, and some students not being picked up at all.

The Hawkins County School Systems has been working on implementing a new bus routing software for the last three years, and director of schools Matt Hixson attributes the Crowdstrike outage to affecting the school systems from meeting the goal of being ready for the first day of school on August 5th.

“We do regret this situation has happened and I do apologize for any confusion it may have caused among parents or students,” Hixson said.

Hixson also wanted to make sure parents have provided their current contact information and preferred form of contact and preferred form of contact with the school system. Another contributing factor to longer bus rides can also be attributed to the county’s need for bus drivers.

To fill out the form for your student, visit the Hawkins County website.