As a long-standing relationship with the City of Pekin regarding student transportation comes to an end at the conclusion of the 2025-2026 school year, Pekin Community High School is looking forward to bringing the transportation of its high school students in-house. Despite the success the City’s transportation department has had while serving PCHS as well as several of its feeder schools, the City made the decision to not continue this long-standing agreement at the conclusion of the current three-year contract.
After much deliberation and time spent looking at the options moving forward, PCHS has made the decision to create their own Transportation Department that will manage the busing of its students. At June’s School Board Meeting, a Transportation Director was recommended and approved, and an additional position of Transportation Coordinator was also approved to be posted. These two positions will work with the current administration and Board to put everything in place to successfully run a transportation department.
Our taxbase, in addition to state funding, has supported our transportation budget over the years, and our intention is to continue to provide quality transportation to our students without any additional burdens to stakeholders moving forward.
Our hope is that the quality staff in drivers and monitors who historically have served our students as City employees will want to come and work for PCHS. PCHS will spend the 2025-2026 school year putting the building blocks in place for the new department. That means securing buses, establishing routes, and, most importantly, hiring critical drivers and staff to ensure a successful transition.
We have appreciated our relationship with the City of Pekin over the years, but we are ready and excited to bring the transportation of our students in-house. Our hope is that we don’t miss a beat and the wheels of the bus keep turning right into the 2026-2027 school year!