More charter schools report bus problems

Long-standing issues with bus contractors that serve charter schools boiled over this week as students across New Castle County endured hourslong delays and buses missing stops.

Though problems at the new Academia Antonia Alonso charter school made headlines Tuesday, it is clear that the problem is not limited to that school.

"It's a quagmire," said Sean Moore, chief administrative officer of Family Foundations Academy in New Castle, whose students have experienced long transportation delays this week. "We have these parents who are justifiably upset because they don't know where their kids are, and we're trying to fix it, but [the contractors] are just not helping. It's extremely frustrating."

Parents and school leaders acknowledge that some problems are to be expected at the start of the year, like a few students getting on the wrong bus, or buses arriving a little late. But in some place

s this year, parents have gone for hours after school without knowing where their kids are.

"I don't understand how this is not a priority," said Niki Vella, who said it was taking her son more than an hour and a half to get home from Gateway Lab School even though she lives about 20 minutes away. "I consider myself a pretty calm parent, but I was just fed up with it."

Vella said she likes the teachers at Gateway but pulled her son out of the school because she was so frustrated with bus service.

"I called the bus company, and they kept saying they couldn't do anything to help," Vella said. "And that's when I was actually able to get anybody on the phone in the first place."

Vella was one of several parents who reached out to The News Journal after the paper published a story about problems at Academia Antonia Alonso, a new dual-language charter school in downtown Wilmington.

On Monday, several Academia buses were so late that parents reported their children missing to police. One bus did not connect kids with their parents until nearly 7 p.m.

It is now clear that there were issues at more schools than Academia.

Parents and school staff complained about multiple schools, both traditional district schools and charters. But the biggest complaints were with charter schools, especially Academia and Family Foundations.

Family Foundations faced particularly huge problems, Moore said.

School staff were forced to remain at the school until well past 7 p.m. Tuesday night making sure every student got home; in a few cases, teachers and administrators ended up driving students home themselves.

One bus dropped off some of its students earlier than it was supposed to in the morning. When school administrators asked why the driver was early, he said he had to pick up students from another school and would return later with the rest of his assigned kids.

That afternoon, a bus marked for Route 10 picked up students, but minutes later, another bus marked for the same route showed up.

"We were trying to figure out which bus was doing the route, and whether the kids who got on the first bus were going to the right place," Moore said. "And the whole time we're trying to get in touch with the bus company, but they just won't answer the phone."

One bus didn't show up at all, Moore said. At one point, students were dropped off at the wrong stop, and the school called police to help find them.

New Castle City police looked into the matter, found that the students were safe with their parents and did not cite anyone, Lt. Adam Brams said.

Family Foundations contracts with Advanced Student Transportation for its elementary-school students and with First Student, a company that provides transportation for about 1,400 school districts, for its middle-school students. First Student is also the contractor for Academia.

A person who answered the phone at First Student's local office referred comment to the company's corporate office in Ohio.

"As the school year begins, there can be transportation issues as First Student, parents and students get accustomed to their new schedules," company spokeswoman Jen Biddinger said in a statement. "We are working with the school district to investigate concerns and make necessary route adjustments. We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused students and their families."

Several messages left with Advanced were not returned.

Moore said a big problem is that schools don't have a lot of choice between contractors. Family Foundations "fired" Advanced two years ago because of busing problems but was basically forced to rehire them because First Student said it didn't have the capacity to handle the entire school body.

"It's like a merry-go-round," Moore said.

Odyssey Charter School also had problems, with some buses being delayed by an hour or two, Head of School Nick Manolakos said. The school sent out a note to parents acknowledging the delays and said it was taking steps to improve, like building a "phone tree" to keep parents informed of any delays and offering after-care for parents who need to change their transportation arrangements.

Kendall Massett, director of the Delaware Charter Schools network, said she received complaints from several New Castle County charters, but there seemed to be fewer problems downstate. She said charters have struggled with receiving good bus service for years, though this year, the problems were "getting noticed more."

"This is probably one of the biggest issues we've been hearing from our school leaders about trying to fix," Massett said. "We've got to find a way to transport our students that is safe, efficient and cost-effective. Because what we've got now just isn't working."

Massett said the bus companies have had trouble providing enough buses to meet demand, forcing some buses to "double up."

Charter schools cannot afford to purchase and maintain their own bus fleets, so they have to rely on contractors, Massett said.

Some traditional schools operate their own buses, though almost all rely on contractors for at least part of their service. Last year, Brandywine was the only school district to operate all of its buses itself. More than half of districts relied entirely on contract buses.

Under state law, charters receive only 70 percent of funding per student that vo-tech districts get, but they are allowed to bid out for better prices and can re-allocate any money they save back into school operations, Massett said.

Moore, with Family Foundations, said the low percentage means it's hard for schools to pay competitive prices, which limits their options with bus companies.

During the legislative session earlier this year, bus contractors asked the state to give them more money to cover growing operating costs, saying they were having problems making ends meet.

But Massett argues the problem isn't financial.

"I'm all for equitable funding for our charter schools. However, in this instance, this is not about money," she said. "This is just about these companies not doing right by our kids."

Contact Matthew Albright at malbright@delawareonline.com or at (302) 324-2428. Follow him on Twitter @TNJ_malbright.

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Have you had problems with the buses that bring your children to and from school? Reporter Matthew Albright wants to hear from you. Give him a call at (302) 324-2428 or email him at malbright@delawareonline.com.