District First Information

District First is a veteran-led, vendor- and product-neutral K–12 transportation and operations advisory group. It partners with school district COOs and CFOs to turn operational headaches into strategic wins — finding recurring savings, improving service reliability, and defending transportation decisions to the board, using data and proven practices rather than guesswork. Our recommendations serve the district, not a platform or contractor. It's led by veteran transportation, analytics, and finance executives with real district operating experience, and is partnered with leading universities — including Harvard, Virginia Tech, and George Mason — to ground its analysis in research. District First also hosts the Scholastic AI Innovation Lab (SAIL), a program supporting high school students in exploring and building real-world AI innovation. Where we delivers results 💰$10M+ in recurring transportation savings for a 200,000-student district 💰$2M+ in recurring overtime savings for a 1,500-employee transportation department ✅50%+ reduction in parent calls/emails through customized dashboards and automated communications ✅On-time arrival rate improved from 74% to 96% through bell-time alignment, tiering, and route optimization Core services 📌Routing efficiency & cost reduction — route, tier, and stop optimization that cuts spend without cutting service quality 📌Performance improvement — better on-time arrival rates, reduced deadhead mileage, lower fuel/maintenance/driver-hour costs 📌Board representation & decision justification — independent, data-backed findings presented directly to the board 📌Bell time study & recommendations — data-driven analysis balancing instructional time, transportation, and community impact 📌School closure analysis & cost estimation — objective modeling of enrollment, routing, and cost impacts for consolidation decisions 📌Parent & community communication — smart dashboards and a support agent for inquiries and request tracking