Margot Bennett: Not so ‘quiet’ year for school buses

The Sept. 14 news article “Wake County runs fewer school buses” stated 99 percent of morning runs and 97 percent of afternoon runs have been on time, with school board member Susan Evans saying it has been the quietest year so far. She has not received a single email about buses being late for pick up, drop off or overcrowding.

How is that the case when transportation is scrambling to return 9,000 emails about school buses? When my child’s route, into its fourth week of school, still does not have a permanent bus driver? When my child’s route has a variance of up to an hour-plus for pick-up or drop-off time? When buses have dropped from eight to four at our school over several years, leading to full capacity on some buses?

“Longer bus rides in more crowded buses”? Absolutely. But please do not say she has not received a single complaint when it is not the school board that is receiving the complaining. Transportation is. Talk to each other. They clearly have a serious problem of too few buses for too many children. Children are hot and tired. Service is not more effective, it is unsafe.

This story was originally published September 17, 2015 at 4:50 PM with the headline "Margot Bennett: Not so ‘quiet’ year for school buses."