Thorpe working on bus issues

Jim Thorpe School officials say they are working to correct issues which led to students being dropped off at bus stops up to an hour late on Tuesday.

On Tuesday around 4 p.m., parents of students at the L.B. Morris campus received a message from the school that buses would be delayed up to an hour, and they had the option of picking up their children from the school. The message came after many students would have normally arrived home at their bus stops.

Some parents reported their children rode overcrowded buses with students sitting four to a seat, while some high school students had to ride to school on an elementary bus Tuesday morning.

Superintendent John Rushef­ski said the district is working on the problem and Tuesday’s bus runs are not what the district expects to provide to its students. He said the principal and assistant principal did a good job managing the situation.

“That’s not the standard that we’re going to be expecting,” Rushefski said.

Rushefski said there were no major problems last week, when students were in session Wednesday through Friday.

Over the summer, school board members decided to change to a single bus contractor after many years with two bus contractors splitting the district’s bus routes.

For many years the district split its bus routes between two companies. Brandywine Carbon handled students living in the Penn-Kidder area, and Kuhn Transportation handled the L.B. Morris area.

This year the district decided to hold a competitive bidding process for all 45 bus routes. Brandywine Carbon was the only one to submit a bid for all 45 routes. Kuhn only bid on the 23 routes it ran in the past, because it would have trouble hiring enough drivers to take over the rest of the district.

Asked if Brandywine had enough drivers to cover the routes, Rushefski said there were issues with drivers, but he did not know the exact problem.

“They do have new drivers who are being processed, so there’s a lot of that going on right now,” Rushefski said.

New bus drivers need three months of training and six hours of driving with another licensed bus driver before they can take over a route on their own.

The district’s contract with Brandywine was not available Wednesday because it hasn’t been finalized. The board approved it Aug. 7. Rushefski said Wednesday it is still being reviewed by the board’s attorney.

Parents took to social media Wednesday to express their concerns about the delays as well as overcrowded buses.

Some said their children rode buses with four students in a seat, or with students sitting on the floor.

Aimee Strubinger said Tuesday morning that her children’s elementary bus had to pick up high school students who were left at their stop in the morning.

Candy Pychinka had multiple concerns. She said she has long advocated for bus monitors to help guide young children and help in case of emergencies.

She said she was also concerned that the school waited until more than a half-hour after dismissal on Tuesday to notify parents that their children would be late.

“That lump in your throat when you don’t know where your kids are is no joke,” Pychinka said.

Walt Schlenner of Brandywine Carbon Transportation said he takes the parents’ concerns seriously. He said they are working on different ways to address the problems.

“We’re making it go. We had little adjustments here and there,” Schlenner said.

Schlenner said his company has enough drivers to cover all the routes. He said the company has several drivers in training and are always hiring new drivers.