BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — A quarter of the way through the school year and Buffalo Public School parents say there are still problems with busing children to school.
“The lack of response from the superintendent, the school board, it leaves this district in a vulnerable position of possibly being civilly or criminally negligent,” said Michael Badger, a grandparent in Buffalo.
The school bus driver shortage was a problem from the first day of school.
Representatives with Buffalo Public Schools say fixes have been made and they're already seeing results. Routes have been consolidated. The district combined routes and lowered the number of bus routes by over 100.
School Board member Paulette Woods at Wednesday’s school board meeting, asking if any children aren't picked up because of busing issues. The district says, some buses maybe late, but there is a route for all children that need to be picked up to attend class.
To get the most of what school bus drivers the district has, Superintendent Kriner Cash is also considering starting a rotation. Two different schools would end classes early, every day. Then the next day, another two schools would end early. This would take 27 days to go through one cycle. The idea is to free up buses, and have drivers double up on routes to get more kids home at a reasonable hour.
“To free up 15 and 20 buses that almost gets us to square,” said Cash.
