The CEO and founder of Safeway Transportation Services Corp. took full responsibility Wednesday for the bus problems that disrupted the start of school at Summit Hill Elementary District 161 in Frankfort.
Meanwhile, the District 161 School Board and administration demanded the bus company improve its services as quickly as possible.
“We understand the industry is tough, but there has to be quick changes or we have to look at alternatives,” board member John Winters said. “We can’t keep continuing to hope Safeway is going to get it right. I want to see you succeed because our children are safe then. But we don’t have a long period of time for that to be achieved.”
Winters said he was disturbed hearing about kindergarten students riding the bus for two hours in the afternoon and having bathroom accidents during the long ride.
Parents in the district reported multiple transportation issues since school began Aug. 21 for students in first through eighth grades and Aug. 22 for kindergartners. Buses failed to pick up their children in the morning, or drove around for hours in the evening only to return back to schools with children in tow.
In some cases, parents were picking up their children from school at about 6 p.m., hours after the school day ends.
Some parents said while service has improved, it is still unreliable.
“As a result, many parents have removed their children from the district busing as they do not trust the district to provide safe and timely transportation for their children,” said parent Patrick Oliphant, whose 7-year-old son was dropped off blocks from home. “That is a problem.”
Lucky Sahota, CEO of Safeway, said during Wednesday’s special school board meeting there were multiple reasons for the rocky start. The company had a severe driver shortage, and some drivers had not practiced their routes before the school year. He said company officials learned last week by checking the buses’ GPS systems that some drivers failed to do dry runs.
There were also problems with the routing software system that creates efficient routes.
“We are figuring out the issues in routing,” Sahota said. “We are fixing those issues. I feel horrible.”
Sahota said it is the company’s responsibility to make sure the routes are safe.
“Yesterday and today were a lot better than last week,” he said. “Tomorrow will be better than today.”
The company also had a change in some leadership positions in July, contributing to the problems, Sahota said.
School board members and administrators said the transportation deficiencies have marred the start of the year.
Winters said another problem is the Here Comes the Bus app that enables parents to see the location of their child’s school bus has not worked properly. The company touted the service to the district when officials were considering Safeway, he said.
“I’m very disappointed,” he said. “It’s something we paid for, a service that we were promised.”
Sahota said the Here Comes the Bus app had some software issues and it is expected to be rectified in a few weeks.
Superintendent Paul McDermott said parents shouldn’t rely on the app until the district sends out a notice it is updated, reliable and accurate.
Board members also felt some routes didn’t make sense and children were going out of the way to get to and from school.
Board member Joy Murphy said in one instance she watched a bus driver repeatedly try to make an awkward turn inside a cul-de-sac.
“I think there are more routes that need to be worked on, and those parents are just quiet,” Murphy said. “We really need to double check and make sure these routes are making sense because it’s like the wild, wild west out there.”
Murphy said in addition to reliable service to and from school, the bus company needs to improve its service for extracurricular activities.
McDermott said he was worn out and frustrated with the transportation problems in what should be the happiest time of the year for students, families and staff. The bus issues with Safeway were not isolated to District 161, he said.
McDermott thanked district employees for filling in the gaps during the start of school to communicate the bus failures.
“Had it not been for their herculean efforts, for this teamwork, unimaginably transportation would have been much, much worse as it was in other districts that Safeway serves,” he said.
McDermott apologized to families and said officials are working to prevent such “inexcusable” service.
“These are our students and their families and our schools and the service provided was inadequate and unsafe and so we needed to step in,” he said.
Safeway was short five or six bus drivers at the start of the school year, which threw the start of year in chaos, McDermott said. Substitute drivers had to be used.
McDermott said the district, which pays $1.7 million a year for busing, will continue to work with Safeway leadership for improvements. The district has been given access to track its buses via GPS. The bus company will also move away from paper routing sheets and have turn-by-turn directions on an iPad for the drivers.
“There’s an ebb and flow and a push and pull to this because I want to be really, really hard on this company, but there’s also no company singularly that can pick up 24 routes at this moment,” McDermott said.
“We need more from our company that we are paying to do this service. I’m frustrated, and I’m stuck,” he said. “Safeway is our partner. We are going to partner with them to make things better, but also to ensure the service our families deserve is the service they are getting.”
Michelle Mullins is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
