Council Rock Busing Woes Dominate Thursday School Board Meeting

NEWTOWN, PA – Issues surrounding busing this year at the Council Rock School District dominated Thursday night's board meeting, with dozens of community members in attendance and many speaking about their concerns.

Visibly exasperated parents took to the podium to describe the various transportation challenges that have ensued since the start of the year — a mother of a 7-year-old who feared for her son's safety at his stop along a busy roadway, another parent whose first grader's bus whizzed by him on the first day of school, and others who commented on overcrowded buses, long wait times, and nonsensical routes.

Problems with transportation have been ongoing since the first day of school and have been thoroughly documented in the Council Rock Parents Facebook page. Some parents have said children had to sit on laps due to crowding and others say buses are arriving up to an hour late.

The district outsources its transportation needs to First Student.

Superintendent Robert Fraser, who offered an update at the outset of the meeting and responded to various inquiries and concerns during the public comment period, pledged the issues connected to student safety are the top priority. Since the start of school, the district has added buses and routes, and has changed many students' stops to address the overcrowding concerns, he noted.

RELATED: Council Rock Parents Fuming Over Busing Fiasco

Fraser said the transportation failures are due to a shortage of bus drivers.

But many members of the public took issue with that contention, saying a bus driver shortage is not a new impediment that could have caused such an abrupt and immediate disruption.

The issue, many parents said, is the routes.

One mother of seven children said: "Never in 15 years have we experienced anything like this. Please don't blame this on bus driver shortage. This is completely the fault of poor planning, poor execution, and inexperienced staff."

She cited poorly planned routes as the instigator for the problems, noting her high school student's bus passes the same house three times before leaving her neighborhood.

A mother of a first-grade student who spoke during the public comment period said buses are literally driving in circles. "The routes don't make sense," she said.

Fraser praised the work by the district's transportation team, which is made up of four employees, saying they're doing their best to make sure the situation is remedied.

"Frankly, my hat is off to them," he said, acknowledging some of the assumptions used when forming the initial routes were "too aggressive."

Fraser has said the transportation team will currently focus "exclusively" on improving timing issues for specific buses that have been consistently late. Route modification for all elementary schools is currently underway, with targeted completion date for all schools by Friday, September 27.

Here is the full video of the meeting: