Parents report some school bus problems in Wake County
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- After the first day of school in Wake County, more than 158,000 students are now back at school and with the new year comes new school bus delays and complaints.
Monday afternoon around 3:45 p.m., Rolesville Middle School tweeted, "Still no buses on campus!"
Then a few minutes later tweeted that buses had started to arrive.
Parents of some of those students say while they were warned of delays, their students arrived home about 40 minutes late.
At this time, there is no overall picture yet from the Wake County Public School System about how the routes home went, although district spokesperson, Lisa Luten said, "The morning routes went well."
To start the school year, WCPSS said they have 830 bus drivers for 825 routes with 50 substitutes on hand. District leaders last week said they are no longer worried about not having enough drivers for the buses because they consolidated a few routes which would put more students on buses.
That was a problem for Ellie Holt and her family.
"I have a freshman starting Wakefield High School. He stood out with a group of kids, bus comes, and driver only allows a few kids on and says there is no more room on the bus, the rest of the kids would have to wait. I was fortunate that my son was able to catch a ride with our neighbor," said Holt.
Meantime, fellow Wake County parent, Kristen Shull, said the bus stop her daughter used Monday morning was just too dangerous.
Shull's daughter goes to East Millbrook Middle School and used the bus stop near her home, on the very busy Buffaloe Road at Top of the Pines Court in Raleigh.
Shull took her daughter to the bus stop in the morning then said she tried calling to request a different bus for her daughter before the end of the day.
"No one called me back from Wake County. I called the administration twice. I called transportation twice. No one called back," she said.
Shull said her daughter and a few other children had to dart through traffic to get to their neighborhood and that the bus driver allegedly did not wait until the children had crossed before pulling away.
Leaders with Wake County Schools say they have 825 bus routes covering 100,000 miles every day.
They say they are working on issues as they come up and ask for patience over the next few weeks.
