SEATTLE — Dozens of Seattle Public School buses were delayed Wednesday morning, leaving some students waiting as long as two hours.
For mom Ashley Reed, it was a rocky morning for the first day back in a year and a half.
“I was a little upset because it wasn’t in an email or anything and my child was sitting out there for half an hour waiting for a bus that wasn’t going to come,” Reed said.
Fred Podesta of Seattle Public Schools said the delays were due to a bus driver shortage amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“Remember, you go from no buses to 360 buses, we do a lot of hiring and a lot of staffing and enrollment and all that comes together at the last minute,” Podesta said.
He also said first-day hiccups aren’t unusual, noting similar shortages in previous years. Podesta also insists that parents were in fact notified the night before.
“We know we’re having the same recruiting challenges as the whole country,” he continued.
That wasn't much consolation for Reed, who had to drive her son to his first day of middle school.
“I get the shortage of people, but I can’t excuse the miscommunication. It should have been told to parents somehow. They email me for every little thing, but they can’t email me that my kid's bus is late,” Reed said.
This district said it is confident the dust will settle and that parents can expect schedules to return back to normal starting Thursday morning.
Tim Robinson with Seattle Public Schools shared data provided by First Student, who operates the school buses.
Of 602 routes, 141 were on time, 239 were under 20 minutes late, 48 were up to an hour late and two routes were two hours late.
Robinson said the other 173 routes could not provide actual arrival times for a variety of reasons, including GPS issues. He said the school is working to fix that.
