ST. LOUIS 鈥 Some students get home from school after 6 p.m. or are not picked up at all as the bus crisis in St. Louis Public Schools continues into the fourth week of school, parents said.
Administrators at SLPS have scrambled to cover transportation since Missouri Central bus company canceled its contract with the district in the spring. A mix of buses, taxis and rideshare cars from multiple vendors, plus Metro city buses, have combined to drive students in the first three weeks of school.
After Labor Day, the district reconfigured the routes to add close to 1,000 more students to yellow buses. But some parents said the changes made it worse.
On Monday, a聽nonverbal student arrived home almost 90 minutes after school was dismissed with no way to track the bus. One cab driver said he didn鈥檛 remember his phone number when a parent asked for it.聽
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鈥淲hat鈥檚 not fair is parents having to arrive to work late due to these issues. What鈥檚 not fair is my child calling me crying because they don鈥檛 know where they are and it鈥檚 past 6 p.m. What鈥檚 not fair is children urinating on the bus because they can鈥檛 hold it anymore because they didn鈥檛 get home in a reasonable amount of time,鈥 one mom posted on Facebook.
The school board is expected to hear an update on transportation at its meeting Tuesday evening. Square Watson, chief of operations, and Toyin Akinola, transportation director, have not responded to questions from the Post-Dispatch since the first day of school.
Before school started, Akinola said most vehicles will have GPS tracking and apps to keep parents updated. There is no GPS tracking for the thousands of students riding in unmarked taxicabs, and the First Student bus app does not work effectively, parents report.
At the August board meeting, Watson said there have been no safety concerns despite multiple reports of children sitting on the floor of taxi minivans because there were too many passengers. After the incidents, school principals were told to check that each student has a seat belt.
Sherrill Townsend said a bus came for the first time Monday to take her kids to Dewey Elementary in the Hi-Pointe neighborhood. But the bus stop is 5 blocks away from their home in the Tower Grove area, she said. The school district鈥檚 guidelines call for a bus stop at the nearest corner to Townsend鈥檚 home because she has a kindergartner.
鈥淗e鈥檚 a special needs kid, he鈥檚 small,鈥 Townsend said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 overwhelming. It鈥檚 too much.鈥
The rocky start to the school year has had an unknown effect on attendance, another topic where district leaders have refused to provide details.
Matt Davis, vice president of the school board, posted Aug. 23 on social media, 鈥淚t will be disappointing to the SLPS haters in the media, online and in public office, but first week attendance is actually up.鈥
On Sept. 1, Davis posted that the first-day attendance was 14,047, down from 14,304 in 2023.
Acting Superintendent Millicent Borishade said at a recent board meeting that attendance in the second week reached 鈥渨ell over 17,000, closer to 18,000鈥 students.
There is no attendance or enrollment update on Tuesday鈥檚 agenda. There is also no update on the status of Superintendent Keisha Scarlett, who was placed on leave in July pending an investigation of her spending and hiring practices. Davis previously said the inquiry would conclude in early September.
The school board is expected to vote Tuesday on approving 15 sets of meeting minutes that have been backlogged for more than a year. Minutes have not been posted from monthly school board meetings since April or from work sessions since June 2023.
The board received some of the records on Saturday and others Monday to review before voting, which member Natalie Vowell called 鈥渁 completely unacceptable and unattainable turnaround time鈥 in an email to the board Monday.