‘Irresponsible’ delays plague BPS bus plan
A week into the new school year, Boston public and charter school parents say buses are still showing up late or not at all — delays that one city councilor called “irresponsible.”
“Parents are not assigned school buses,” said Shellina Semexant of Dorchester and a KIPP Academy parent. “Many parents are still struggling trying to figure out how to get their kids to school. When parents call transportation they are being placed on hold. Our parents are very dissatisfied. They don’t know what to do. Our kids are not getting the transportation they need.”
At KIPP Academy in Mattapan, which started school in August, Semexant said yesterday buses continue to arrive almost a half-hour later.
“We’ve been in school for four weeks,” Semexant told the Herald. “We are still having issues with buses showing up? What about the 49 percent? That is a large percentage of buses that did not show up in time.”
City Councilor Annissa Essaibi George, chairwoman of the education committee, said the council will need to take action and demand answers from Boston Public Schools if the problem isn’t fixed soon.
“It is really, truly unacceptable the challenges we are seeing with buses and the tardiness, the missing of routes and stops in the morning and afternoon,” George said. “It has been systemwide. This needs to be figured out. It’s been a full week into the school year. After next week, the council will need to act and more formally reach out to the school department to find out what the problems are.”
The ongoing transportation troubles come as the Boston Public Schools is in negotiations with the bus drivers union, the United Steelworkers and contractor Transdev for a new agreement. BPS provides bus service to charter and private school students.
Forty-nine percent of buses were late to school on the first day last Thursday. Eighty percent arrived on time within 15 minutes.
Interim Superintendent Laura Perille has said she can’t go into detail about bus issues due to the contract negotiations.
“There are always challenges at the first week of school but that does not mean we are content with any performance delays,” Perille said Wednesday night.
“Ninety-four percent within 15 minutes still means 6 percent are showing up late and they are missing educational opportunities,” said School Committee member Michael O’Neill at Wednesday’s board meeting. “They are missing breakfast and on the flipside they are not getting home in time.”
“Communicate with school leaders so they can communicate with their individual school communities on a daily basis if possible until we are at a level where people across the city feel we are in great shape on transportation,” he added.
“We want to hear that the 49 percent are being heard,” agreed School Committee member Regina Robinson. “We want to hear that school leaders are being heard from central office.”