SAN ANTONIO – Melissa Richardson knew there would be some delays after the first day of classes at Cibolo Valley Elementary School last week, but she didn’t expect to wait more than two hours for her first grader to come home.
“I started calling the school about 4:30, 4:45. And I was like, ‘Hey, where’s my kid?” Richardson said. “And so, you can hear from the school’s perspective, all the lines ringing, trying to find all these kids.”
Richardson said her husband later caught up with the bus an hour later and was able to bring their daughter home. After meeting with officials with Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD, she said she began to get a better picture of what happened.
“She was never dumped in a random neighborhood, but she was constantly taken to different random neighborhoods instead of where she was supposed to go,” Richardson said.
She was one of the parents who reached out to KSAT 12 News about the chaotic first day of classes. Another parent, Hanna Henson, said the bus “never stopped” and that she also had to wait hours for her child to come home.
Officials with the district cited staffing issues, made more acute by the pandemic, for some of the delays. Public Information Officer Ed Suarez issued a statement to KSAT 12 News responding to questions about the delays:
“The first 2-3 weeks of school are challenging each year as new students ride the bus and transportation patterns change. Districts, ours included, spend the first few weeks balancing bus loads and adjusting bus routes to meet the needs of this year’s riders. This year is further complicated by the fact that we still have unfilled bus driver positions. SCUC ISD is continuing to recruit new drivers, with some already in the certification program. Morning arrival and afternoon drop off times are not where we would like them, but they are improving. The SCUC ISD transportation staff are working extremely hard to meet our growing transportation needs. Thanks to our parents for being patient with us.”
While some parents like Richardson are still hesitant to send their child on the bus, Henson said the situation is slowly improving.
“The buses are still really delayed, but they are taking steps to fix it,” she said.
Other districts feeling the squeeze
Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City is not the only district dealing with pandemic-fueled transportation issues. North East ISD parents also have concerns about delays and crowding. The district said it is dealing with more students returning to buses than expected, while also facing a driver shortage.
“I think it is safe to say that what the pandemic has added to the mix this year is we have drivers out on Covid leave because they are exposed or perhaps some had a positive test without symptoms and so they are quarantining to keep everybody safe,” said Jack De Forrest, executive director of transportation for North East ISD. “And we’re dealing with that type of an absence that we did not in previous years, especially last year.”
Other districts also said staffing shortages will likely continue to impact school transportation, at least in the short term. That means parents will need something else that may be in short supply right now: patience.
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