ALTON, Ill. – Jacqueline Anderson nervously waited for her second grader to come home from school Wednesday.
“He didn’t even really want to get on the bus this morning because he was like, ‘What if they lose me again tomorrow, Mom?'” she said.
A day earlier, when the bus showed up, her son was not on it.
“It’s scary not knowing where your baby is,” Anderson said.
It has been a reoccurring problem for the 6,000 students in the Alton School District since the new year started last week. In a notice to parents Wednesday morning, officials pointed their fingers at Illinois Central School Bus.
The message to families stated:
“Bus routes provided by Illinois Central Bus Company continue to be inaccurate for a large number of students. We are extremely disappointed that this situation has not been resolved and the lack of communication from Illinois Central is unacceptable. Our team will continue to support their correction process. Each day principals, teachers and secretaries are working with the information provided to get students home from school. With inaccurate information, this process is taking longer than usual. In addition, drivers are being challenged to drive with incorrect and incomplete routes, also causing dramatic delays.
Please keep in mind that school staff and drivers are working within very difficult circumstances and these team members are doing their best to respond to the problems created by the routing issues.
We understand that the lack of service provided by Illinois central is creating terrible stress for both families and school teams. We will continue to look for ways to support the process until all routing issues are completely resolved.”
“The schools, the teachers, the staff—they need to know what buses the kids are on and that information has been woefully inadequate,” Alton School Board President David Lauschke said.
He says wrong information from the bus contractor has led to some schools keeping kids longer until the right bus can be found. Or, in Anderson’s case, kids are getting put on the wrong bus.
“I don’t have complete confidence that they’ve got a grasp on this at this point,” Lauschke said.
Illinois Central School Bus did not return FOX 2’s phone call, but when we showed up at their Godfrey office, Regional Operations Manager Scott Allen talked to us off camera.
He said they are using a new routing program this year, that has led to the problems. When asked why it was not tested earlier in the summer, Allen said it was just purchased in May or June and the process has taken time.
Although Illinois Central says it accepts full responsibility, Anderson still wants the district to do more itself.
“It’s the officials in the schools that are putting these kids on these buses. If you’re unsure, contact the parent. Look in their files. They do online registration. Everything’s there,” she said.
Allen hopes things will be running more smoothly by the start of next week.
Lauschke says the board wants to see improvements by that time or the district will start looking into more internal solutions.
