Post by momto4 on Aug 21, 2009 14:37:43 GMT -5
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/1728450,Indian-prairie-bus_na082109.article
August 21, 2009
By SUSAN FRICK CARLMAN scarlman@scn1.com
Vicki Manthei was alarmed Thursday when her son didn't show up at home when expected after his first day as a freshman at Waubonsie Valley High School.
It turned out he was fine. It's just that he had to walk the mile-long distance to his house because no one at school could tell him which bus was his, the Colony of Lakes subdivision resident said.
"He doesn't have a phone, and I didn't know where he was," she said.
Manthei is one of numerous District 204 parents frustrated by an assortment of glitches in bus service in the first two days of the new school year. For the first time, the school district is seeing to bus routing, which formerly was covered by First Student Inc. The Naperville company still handles transportation services under a contract that runs through next June.
The challenge of using the same number of buses to serve a district expanded by two newly opened schools was evident in buses that this week filled up before all of their assigned riders were picked up, parents said. Others reported buses running nearly an hour late, leading them to drive their kids, and others also waiting at the bus stop, so they wouldn't be tardy.
Many said they weren't able to get answers from the school district, which saw especially heavy traffic on its phone lines and Web site late in the week — particularly after last-minute bus route changes were announced Wednesday afternoon.
"It's been really frustrating," said southwest Naperville resident Lorraine Herr, whose two kids go to Welch Elementary School. She has decided to drive her children to school until things start running more smoothly.
Dave Holm, the district's assistant superintendent for business, said it's always necessary to work out kinks when a new system is put in place. In this case, the routing software chosen by the district has yielded inaccurate information. There also have been "technical difficulties," Holm said, with the e-Link system used to convey information to parents.
Moving 19,000 to 20,000 students from home to school and back again every weekday is a formidable task, said Holm, who expects the bus service to run much more smoothly from now on.
"That means there's 20,000 appointments that have to be met. We have to have the bus driver and the child at the same place at the same time," he said. "When that is off even five minutes, we get the phone call."
August 21, 2009
By SUSAN FRICK CARLMAN scarlman@scn1.com
Vicki Manthei was alarmed Thursday when her son didn't show up at home when expected after his first day as a freshman at Waubonsie Valley High School.
It turned out he was fine. It's just that he had to walk the mile-long distance to his house because no one at school could tell him which bus was his, the Colony of Lakes subdivision resident said.
"He doesn't have a phone, and I didn't know where he was," she said.
Manthei is one of numerous District 204 parents frustrated by an assortment of glitches in bus service in the first two days of the new school year. For the first time, the school district is seeing to bus routing, which formerly was covered by First Student Inc. The Naperville company still handles transportation services under a contract that runs through next June.
The challenge of using the same number of buses to serve a district expanded by two newly opened schools was evident in buses that this week filled up before all of their assigned riders were picked up, parents said. Others reported buses running nearly an hour late, leading them to drive their kids, and others also waiting at the bus stop, so they wouldn't be tardy.
Many said they weren't able to get answers from the school district, which saw especially heavy traffic on its phone lines and Web site late in the week — particularly after last-minute bus route changes were announced Wednesday afternoon.
"It's been really frustrating," said southwest Naperville resident Lorraine Herr, whose two kids go to Welch Elementary School. She has decided to drive her children to school until things start running more smoothly.
Dave Holm, the district's assistant superintendent for business, said it's always necessary to work out kinks when a new system is put in place. In this case, the routing software chosen by the district has yielded inaccurate information. There also have been "technical difficulties," Holm said, with the e-Link system used to convey information to parents.
Moving 19,000 to 20,000 students from home to school and back again every weekday is a formidable task, said Holm, who expects the bus service to run much more smoothly from now on.
"That means there's 20,000 appointments that have to be met. We have to have the bus driver and the child at the same place at the same time," he said. "When that is off even five minutes, we get the phone call."