If instead of clicking all the links you had read the article, it's explained:

The Associated Press reported that the school district spent $199,000 to hire the AlphaRoute engineering firm to create a plan that would cut the number of bus routes and stops. According to The Louisville Courier-Journal, the school district changed its bus schedule and start times this year in an attempt to cope with a bus driver shortage.

They were short on bus drivers, and they hired a firm to come up with a plan that would "make it work". Specifics of the routes aren't given, but I'd imagine that they were completely ridiculous for any kids to have still been on buses six or seven hours after school got out.