LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (WAVE) – Although JCPS gave the all-clear and all students were dropped off by 7 p.m. Thursday evening, many parents still had to expect delays and problems with bus transportation on the first day of school.
Sheri Walker is a JCPS mom who has two children at Perry Elementary and a daughter at Olmstead Academy South and rides the bus to school.
She went into the first day hoping that things would run more smoothly for her children this year after experiencing transportation issues in her district last school year.
“It was horrible. My kids didn’t come home until well after 6 or 7 p.m. and that went on for about a week,” Walker said.
Her daughter’s bus was over an hour late picking her up on Thursday morning. After school, the bus arrived 50 minutes after the 3:30 p.m. pick-up time and dropped the students off at the wrong location.
When Walker noticed that her daughter was not with her classmates, she searched until she found her daughter a few blocks away.
“The bus driver said she just let her off at the old bus stop because she couldn’t turn onto the street,” Walker said. “At least I think the bus driver could have found some sort of route around us at the correct bus stop to let us know there was a block here, a detour.”
Chyna Miller had another frustrating experience on her first day. She says that after school, a subway bus that her seven-year-old son was supposed to ride drove right past his bus stop in the Portland neighborhood.
“The bus just drove past us and I and numerous other parents were yelling something like, ‘Hey, hey, those are our kids,’ and it just kept driving,” Miller said.
She says she ran after the bus driver to the next stop and realized that her son was not on the bus.
When she called the accommodation, she learned that he had boarded a bus. However, they could not tell her the bus number or where he had gotten off.
In desperation, she posted a message on Facebook asking if anyone had seen her son, and found him alone on 26th Street.
“I was still panicking. Every time I went to him, I was crying,” Miller said. “He said, ‘What did I do wrong?'”
JCPS told WAVE that the student was placed on another bus and dropped off at his stop while Miller searched for him.
While Miller understands that there may be some confusion on the first day, she says the experience has made her question whether they still want to rely on the buses.
“Hopefully we can make some arrangements with a family member or my grandmother, or someone can pick him up so he can drive and not have to rely on the bus anymore,” Miller said.
Walker also says she understands the bus delays but hopes for an improvement in the coming weeks.
“I hope she reaches her stop in time as the next few days go by,” Walker said.
In a press conference, Pollio said the delays on Thursday on the first day of school were normal and that parents could expect school routes to become smoother as the school year progressed.
“Every first day there are problems, a bus driver gets lost,” Pollio said. “There are just problems that are not major problems, but when they accumulate, the times become later than necessary. That efficiency will improve dramatically.”
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