With classes just a week away, a change to Fresno Unified’s school bus stops is sending students at magnet schools to new pickup stops, sometimes miles away from their previous bus routines.
For the 2026-27 school year, all FUSD general education students will be served by Zūm, a student transportation company based in Redwood City with a technology platform that lets parents track their students’ buses and gives the district tools to manage bus routes.
As part of the changes that come with Zūm, Fresno Unified has replaced all bus stops for choice and magnet school students with a new “hub” model that places current stops at neighborhood schools.
“Under the old model, buses made hundreds of neighborhood stops, creating long ride times, unreliable arrivals, and heavy traffic around elementary campuses at drop-off,” the district wrote in a post on ParentSquare on Aug. 7.
Some parents say, however, that the change was not communicated clearly or early enough to give families time to accommodate for new stops that will now be further away.
For Annie Masutsubo’s son, Benji, this means that instead of being accompanied by his older sister to get on the bus to Baird Middle School, he will now have to walk a half-mile away unsupervised and cross a busy intersection.
“His new route has him cross a busy street where the speed limit is between 35 and 40; that’s what I would call a major intersection that he, as an 11-year-old, needs to cross and won’t have his sister with him anymore,” Annie said.
Masutsubo noted that she didn’t immediately reach out to FUSD with her concerns until receiving an email around a week ago to register her students for bus routes, where she learned of Benji’s new route. When she called the district to ask for help, she said the district wouldn’t make any promises about changes to the new system for just one student.
“I was shocked because I, in the beginning, had a lot of faith in the district; I’m proud to be a Fresnan, I have sent all four of my children to Fresno schools because I’ve always loved them,” Masutsubo said.
Benji said that he didn’t feel comfortable walking to his new stop without his sister and worries about motorists potentially running red lights while crossing the street. He was also dismayed by the scenario of having to carry a backpack further away in the summer heat.
“I kind of feel angry at FUSD for just doing this,” Benji said, adding “we had the same route last year, why can’t we do it now?”
Another parent, Christy Lappe, also shared that she found out only last week about the restructure impacting her student. Initially, administrators at her student’s school site shared that there would be changes to buses, but details were vague.
Now, one of her students has to walk a mile away instead of riding a bus at nearby Roosevelt High School with their sibling to get to school. Lappe said she was told that she could fill out a form to possibly allow her children to ride together and was also referred to Fresno FAX city bus passes made available for students.
On top of sharing the same concerns over safety, communication and accommodation, Lappe said that she feels like the change was shortsighted and questioned how it would help achieve any of the goals the district outlined.
“I think that, instead of being a benefit where they’re saving money from maybe not running as many busses, I definitely think that they’re going to see a decline or enrollment and or tardies because there’s gonna be kids that are having to like not fight to get to school,” Lappe said.
Lappe said that while she may be able to adapt to the change, she worries for other families who may not have the same liberties to work around the bus stop shuffle. She also worried about the potential oversights from such a sudden shift in transportation arrangements.
“The communication factor, not having a choice, and then rolling this out within a short amount of time span just isn’t feasible,” Lappe said.
Parents seeking information about their magnet students’ new bus stop have been directed to register for the Zūm app, according to posts on ParentSquare.
Fresno Unified was not immediately available for comment on parent concerns.
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