By Adam Studzinski
NORMAL – Unit 5 Board of Education members heard from many upset parents Wednesday night at their meeting inside Normal West High School.
Many district buses have been overcrowded and/or late in the first week of school. The problems have even gone beyond that. Josh Smith has a daughter in 5th grade at Parkside Elementary, who he said was missing after school Tuesday.
“We had to contact Normal Police to find out where my daughter was,” said Smith. “They had to send a cop to the bus garage and force them to contact the other buses that were out on route to find out where my daughter was. And she was on the complete opposite side of town.”
Jonathan Amaya said his four-year-old special needs student has almost a 1.5 hour bus ride.
“He can’t even speak for himself. And we live 10 minutes from the school,” said Amaya. “We can’t even get a return phone call – seven phone calls.”
Superintendent Mark Daniel took time to apologize to parents.
“These problems are unacceptable,” said Daniel. “We are addressing some key issues. We want those to be timely and we want those to be immediate.
“Temporary staff has been added at transportation and even at the unit office to take phone calls, and we’ve extended some of our hours of service. They’ve also, First Student, brought in additional buses and drivers to help with the situation.”
First Student provides transportation for Unit 5. Daniel hoped problems like overcrowded buses will begin to be alleviated as of Thursday afternoon.
Adam Studzinski can be reached at adam.studzinski@cumulus.com.
