The Boston City Council is set to hold an emergency hearing on Tuesday to address what parents describe as the worst year of school bus service in recent memory, with one Roslindale family reporting that their assigned bus was either significantly late, missing, or untracked 21 times during the current school year.
Laura Gonzales McKenna, a Roslindale resident whose three children, ages 5, 8, and 10 attend the Rafael Hernández dual-language immersion school in Roxbury, said the 21 missed or delayed trips amount to "almost exactly one month of school where we did not have a school bus," according to an email she received from the district's transportation director in late February.
On Mar. 20 alone, the morning bus for her children did not arrive at school until 9:18 a.m., more than 45 minutes after classes had already started, according to WBUR.
The emergency hearing, sponsored by City Councilor Enrique Pepén, who represents Roslindale, Mattapan, and Hyde Park, aims to examine the chronic delays and their impact on students and families. Pepén said delayed buses have been among the top concerns he has heard since taking office two years ago. "I think the biggest concern as a parent is just having that fear of, where is my child?" he said.
Data from the start of the school year through January shows that Transdev, the private company that has managed Boston Public Schools bus operations since 2013, is falling short of its contractual benchmarks. The company averaged just 90% on-time performance in the morning and 84% in the afternoon, both below the required 95% threshold outlined in its contract with the district.
Despite 3,469 instances from August through Mar. 13 in which buses missed daily trips or arrived more than an hour late to stops, the district has not issued a single $500 penalty against Transdev, Boston25 News reported.
Boston Public Schools spokesman Chris McKinnon said "Past experience has shown this is not the most effective lever for improving performance." He cited staffing vacancies, absenteeism, mechanical issues, and inclement weather as contributing factors.
Another Roslindale parent, Erin Ramsey-Tooher, whose three children also attend the Hernández school, said she has resorted to starting a WhatsApp group where parents can arrange last-minute rides and carpools. She called it "flabbergasting" that taxpayer dollars are wasted when a bus arrives two hours late for afternoon pickup, long after families have already found other ways to get their children home.
Transdev operates a fleet of more than 700 buses that transport roughly 22,000 students to more than 200 schools daily. In a statement, the company said it understands "how disruptive and frustrating it is when buses are delayed" and that it is "committed to addressing these concerns." The district's transportation budget currently stands at $189 million and is expected to surpass $200 million in the next fiscal year, as per GBH.
