Boston City Council

Boston Parents Voice Transportation Concerns to City Council

City councilors met Thursday to address school bus reliability issues in Boston

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The Boston City Council met Thursday night to discuss how to handle school transportation issues.

One by one, parents of students in Boston Public Schools spoke highly critically of the district's bussing system. Many said buses aren't showing up on time, and sometimes not at all.

"How does a parent operate when it's a toss-up as to whether or not a bus will show up?" asked parent Shamieh Wall.

Several parents of special education students said their kids aren't getting bus monitors assigned to their children.

City councilors are discussing how to respond to problems with school bus reliability in Boston.

For Siiri Morley, that means there's nobody to place a special harness on her son.

"We often have to get on the bus and do this while all the other kids watch, which puts an extra spotlight on our son's needs," said Morley.

The special hearing was called by three city councilors, including Kendra Lara, who said, like many parents, she's often left struggling to go get her child to school and make it to work on time.

"My colleagues here have first-hand experience of me walking into hearings late and missing things in the morning because the school bus doesn't come and I have to drive him to school and come to work late," said Lara.

Transportation officials say they're dealing with staffing shortages of both drivers and monitors.

In just the last year, the number of students requiring monitors is up more than 30%.

"I want to acknowledge we are not where we need to be," said Delavern Stanislaus, director of transportation for Boston Public Schools. "We still have work to do, this work will not stop until all of our students are getting to school safely and on time."

The school district says its on-time performance so far this school year is about 88%, but city officials say that's not good enough — on any given day, about 2,600 students aren't getting to school on time.

"Getting that metric down, we understand, is a precursor to be able to truly improve on-time performance, and fixing that metric looks like hiring a lot more drivers," said Jackie Hayes, the district's assistant director of contract operations and fleet.

The school district says it's trying to offer higher wages and bonuses, adding that it's building out its own driving school to make it easier for people to become certified to drive a school bus.

The issues have continued this fall, as the councilors say the district’s transportation team has struggled with hiring and retaining bus drivers, leading to buses being late or not showing up at all to take students to school or athletic events.

The transportation budget is over $100 million, making up about 10% of the entire BPS budget. City councilors have been critical that costs have continued to rise, even though enrollment has declined.

State education officials are also investigating the BPS transportation issues after an advocacy group filed a complaint on behalf of six students, alleging it disproportionately impacts students with disabilities and students of color.

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education had already set up a systemic improvement plan for BPS that included a promise of an on-time arrival rate of 95% or better each month, which at last check, the district was not meeting.

On its website, the district says it’s "working hard to improve service for families and students" – next to an ad that says their transportation company Transdev is hiring bus drivers for $28 an hour, plus a $4,000 sign-on bonus and paid training.

"Boston Public Schools takes our commitment to getting every student to and from school safely and on time seriously," a spokesperson said in a statement. "Our transportation system is complex and although the team has made operational improvements over the past years, we know there is still a need for us to get better."

Boston schools are working with the city to conduct job fairs and direct recruiting to fill hard to staff areas.
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