Schools

District 308 'Working Out the Kinks' in Bus Service

The district buses 13,000 kids to school every day.

officials acknowledge school buses have been running late picking up and dropping students off, but they said it is common when a new school year begins.

“The first week of school, drivers, parents, students — everybody’s learning the route,” said Angie Smith, ’s director of business services.

She has fielded several calls from Eastview School parents who were upset when their children were dropped off more than an hour late Friday.

“We were extremely late because we had a couple of things going on,” Smith said. “We have 18 buses with 500 5-year-olds.”

Before drivers can leave the schools, they are required to account for students who are supposed to be on the bus.

Friday afternoon, some students were not on their buses.

“We double-checked and triple-checked and then found out that mom and dad had changed the normal schedule and picked them up,” Smith said. “Once it was confirmed, we sent the buses on their way.”

She acknowledges a Connect-Ed notification should have been sent out to parents.

“That was our error,” she said.

However, when a traffic accident occurred Tuesday afternoon at Routes 34 and 71, causing delays in getting students dropped off on time, officials did make sure a notification was sent to parents.

“Given that corner is the heart of the district, it really slowed down everything,” Smith said. “We sent out a Connect-Ed warning parents (that) buses had to be rerouted.”

School officials also acknowledge some bus rides are longer due to consolidated routes.

“Some parents don’t like the fact that their students are on a bus for 45 minutes,” Smith said. “And I appreciate that, but if we were to shorten the routes to 20 minutes we would need way more fleet and more drivers, which would be more expense.”

Smith said parents for the most part have been understanding.

“It’s not perfect, but we’re trying to move 13,000 kids every day,” she said. “It’s the first few days of school and takes a little while to get the kinks out.”

Parents weighed in Tuesday about the issue on the Oswego Patch Facebook page.

Judy Reyna-O'neil I think we should all appreciate the fact that we even have buses in our district. A lot aren't so lucky. It's only been a couple weeks since school started, give them a break!

Laura Gavin Grzeszkowiak I was told my child would be home at 4:20 ... he hasn't made it home sooner than 4:45p. That is just too long for a child to be on a bus.

Heather Green Rehg It always takes a little while to iron out all of the kinks. I have found that if everyone is pleasant while communicating, things do eventually get worked out. When planning the routes each summer, I wish they would look at how the routes were actually driven the year before. Elementary students should not have to cross busy roads.

Brian J. Russell We have our 1st in Kindergarten at East View. Despite our worries, our driver spent a good 15min w my wife on the phone the week b4 school. He's been on time in the morning and today he was finally on time for the afternoon. I had resigned myself to there being a good week of "learning" for both the students and the drivers. But so far things are running smooth here.

Meghan German My daughter's PM bus from has been running 20 minutes behind schedule daily ( with the exception of 45 minutes late today) ... Also I'm confused as to why so many buses are needed to bus to the same subdivision and why the Spanish speakers cannot ride the same bus as everyone else. Waste of money if you ask me!

Scott Kristie Blocker Vest Our bus driver, Dave is awesome! Kids and parents here love him!

Alicia Mazzanti Schimmel My experience is with a kindergartner being dropped off at the wrong home twice — the first time was 5:30 and the next day was at 4:50. Today she was dropped at the correct home at 4:45. The first day there was absolutely no communication and the parents were going out of their minds — so NO, I don't think they rock at all.


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