Bus vandals disrupt day

Damage closes schools, families search for options

December 2, 2005

JOEL DAVIDSON\Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - On Tuesday morning, in subzero temperatures, students waited in vain for school buses, and day-care centers surged with unexpected children after most Mat-Su Borough schools closed for a day due to vandalized buses.

Four Mat-Su high school students are suspected of pulling valve stems out of 69 tires on 44 different buses. The acts caused bus tires to deflate and crippled half the fleet for a day. In addition, more than 100 buses were unplugged from engine block heaters and would not start in the cold weather.

After mechanics failed to repair buses in time for school Tuesday morning, the school district's director of transportation, Scott Schwald, called Chief School Administrator Bob Doyle at 5 a.m. to tell him schools had to close for the day.

By then, several bus drivers were already en route to pick up waiting students. David Dickerson, contract manager for bus company First Student, called those drivers who were already on the road and told them to go ahead and swing by their regular stops to tell kids and parents to go home because schools were closed.

At 6 a.m., automated phone calls notified more than 9,500 Mat-Su households of the situation, but by that time, many parents and children were already out the door, headed for work, bus stops or before-school child-care centers.

With the frigid temperatures, Dickerson said he was most concerned about student safety.

&#8220The biggest thing is the chances that were taken with our student body,” he said. &#8220With all the kids waiting for the buses in these cold temperatures, we're taking the chance on somebody getting frostbite or hypothermia - it's just senseless.”

By Tuesday afternoon, mechanics finished repairing all buses, and they were up and running Wednesday morning.

Most parents knew of the situation before leaving the house, thanks to the school district's new automated ConnectEd calling service. Many parents who had already left the house, however, only discovered the problem when dropping their kids off at morning child care.

&#8220We had to tell a lot of parents when they got here,” said Tina Wagner, manager of Ray's Child Care & Learning Center in Wasilla. &#8220Most parents didn't know (the news) when they got here.”

With many children spending considerable time in non-parental day-care centers, before and after school, an interruption in public school services has a large impact, financially and otherwise, on local child-care centers.

In total, Ray's took in 24 extra kids Tuesday at roughly $30 a child. The added children represented a 25 percent increase.

In Palmer, the Children's House child-care center also saw a 25 percent attendance jump for the day.

&#8220Normally, we only expect school-age children before or after school, but they were here all day,” said Associate Director Lynn Stachelrodt. &#8220We filled an extra room.”

Wagner said the extra kids posed a challenge at her center.

&#8220It was an inconvenience but not a disaster,” she said. &#8220Those buses had a ripple effect that we had to be prepared for.”

Contact Joel Davidson at 352-2266 or joel.davidson@frontiersman.com.