Lafourche Parish School District scheduled a Wednesday ribbon-cutting for a new Transportation Center in Lockport, alongside the planned introduction of 115 brand-new, air-conditioned 2027-model school buses and the formal launch of a fleet partnership with First Student. The ceremony was scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday, November 11, 2026, at 6419 LA 308. The district's transportation system previously ran largely on paper routing and relied on an aging, inconsistently maintained fleet.
The new center sits adjacent to the Career Magnet Center in Lockport and was built to serve as the hub for bus operations, maintenance and transportation administration districtwide, according to a social media post from the district. As reported by The Times of Houma/Thibodaux, the ceremony was scheduled to serve as the official kickoff of the district's partnership with First Student, which began managing the leasing and on-site maintenance of the 115-bus fleet starting October 1.
Superintendent Jarod W. Martin described the planned opening as a turning point for how the parish moves its students and drivers each day. “Combining a custom-built, modern maintenance facility with an all-new, fully air-conditioned fleet represents a major investment in our student transportation system,” Martin said, per the same account.
Inside the New Lockport Facility
The building itself was designed with capacity in mind. It includes four 24-by-70-foot drive-through service bays, an automated bus wash system with water treatment, and a 12-by-70-foot secure bulk storage area, the outlet's report notes. Roughly 2,700 square feet is dedicated to office, meeting and parts storage space, and the site can park more than 70 buses at once.
Cheramie+Bruce Architects and Foret Group were named as project partners, the station reports. The district has said the new center and the First Student partnership are designed to strengthen its ability to transport students safely and efficiently across Lafourche Parish, and officials expressed appreciation to school board members, community partners, First Student and its transportation team for the project's completion.
What First Student Takes On
Under the arrangement, First Student will provide routing support, on-site preventive maintenance, roadside assistance and repair services for the fleet, the district's partner confirmed. Per First Student, Inc., the district retains ownership of the facility while First Student handles all maintenance and support services onsite, with the Fleet-as-a-Service solution rolling out for the 2026-27 school year.
That shift follows years of logistical strain. Before the partnership, the district managed its routes on paper and relied on an older fleet with inconsistent upkeep, First Student's announcement states. District officials have said they expect the new, air-conditioned buses to give students more comfortable rides and drivers more modern vehicles to operate, according to a social media post.
The Scale of Daily Operations
The upgrade lands on top of an already sprawling daily operation. A transportation report found the district running 97 routes, covered by 92 full-time drivers and five retirees, according to Citizen Portal. Those routes service about 3,433 bus stops and move approximately 9,418 students daily, depending on attendance, with the fleet logging roughly 6,800 miles each day.
Behind the scenes, transportation staff have also been working to integrate OnCourse and Traversa routing systems and refine the My Ride parent app to cut down on manual routing errors, the outlet's reporting shows. Staff have separately acknowledged occasional GPS or cellular dropouts that have affected the parent app, and the district has outlined plans to equip all 115 buses, including spares, with cameras, routing tablets and live-video feeds.
Together, the new Lockport center and the First Student partnership mark one of the more visible infrastructure investments the district has made in its transportation system in recent memory, built around the goal the district has stated of improving the safety, comfort and reliability of daily student and driver transportation throughout Lafourche Parish.
