A busing company switch has yielded a host of problems for Evanston/Skokie School District 65 parents, board members said at Monday’s meeting.
The district switched from Durham Bus Services busing company to Alltown Bus Services this year, cutting a couple hundred thousand dollars, School Board member Mary Erickson said Sunday before the meeting. Now parents are saying bus drivers are letting off students at the wrong stops, are driving too fast, are arriving at school late and are screaming at children.
“The service has been absolutely unacceptable,” Erickson said.
Lisa Koch, a parent of a third-grade daughter and fourth-grade son at Dewey Elementary School, 1551 Wesley Ave., made a presentation to the board. A written statement listed Dewey parent concerns.
Koch wrote that drivers are letting students off at the wrong stops, at times blocks away from their homes. Drivers are also pulling away from bus stops before children are seated and are driving too fast.
In her statement, Koch also said parents are missing work because of the busing situation. Communication between D65 personnel and parents has been limited, Koch said.
Laura Hohnhold, a parent of a fourth grade son and a first grade daughter and co-president of the Parent-Teacher Association, said the problem is affecting families throughout the district.
“It’s been four weeks and the bus has yet to arrive and depart in any type of timely fashion,” Hohnhold said. “We are afraid that children are going to get hurt or lost.”
Poor service could be caused by Alltown’s rapid growth, which caused the company to take too many routes, Hohnhold said.
“We’ve just managed to get together to deal with (the issue),” she said.
Daphne Cunningham, parent of three sons at Dewey, said parents have also contacted Alltown.
“You get a different person every time and there has not been a sign of satisfactory service,” she said.
Cunningham said she thought Durham provided good service last year.
Parent anger over the busing problems was justified, Superintendent Hardy Murphy said. D65 officials will contact Alltown tomorrow to send strong complaints about the current service, he said.
“We are acting with assertion to resolve them,” Murphy said.
School board member Julie Chernoff said the board is willing to do what it takes to ensure that students are transported safely, “by whatever means necessary.”
The board also held a budget hearing at Monday’s meeting but did not receive objections or resistance to the budget.
The board will save money from a change in the statewide Early Retirement Option legislation, board member Sharon Sheehan said.
The switch to the new Early Retirement Option makes early retirement more appealing for teachers who are now considering before the new ERO goes into effect, said Dorothy Millard, president of District Educators’ Council 65, the teachers union.
“The new ERO is not as nice a package,” Millard said before the meeting. “They cut benefits.”
The district will save money because older, more experienced teachers who receive greater salaries will be replaced by new, younger teachers, Millard said.
The proposed budget is more stable than in past years, Erickson said. Previously the district has suggested large cuts to school programs.
“The district has gotten a lot better in projection, how much to allocate for programs,” Erickson said.
Reach Lensay Abadula at [email protected].
