'I hope you don’t take it lightly': Frustration and anger continue for Mat-Su bus service amid cancellations and missing children

Rolling bus cancellations continue to frustrate families in the Mat-Su Borough as the first week of school comes to an end.

Prior to the first week of school, Durham School Services, the new multi-year bus contractor for the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District (MSBSD) had announced that due to a bus driver shortage, many core schools would experience route cancellations one to two days a week for at least the next several weeks.

Many parents expressed anger and frustration on social media, aimed at Durham and the school district. There were also incidents of confusion as some students were mistakenly put onto the wrong buses and parents voiced displeasure at not being able to connect with drivers when buses were late to their routes or didn’t show up at all.

One case that lit up social media involved two children that were missing when they were mistakenly put on the wrong bus. One of the missing children was 7-year-old Jacob Wentworth. In a post shared across different Facebook pages, Karen Nichols, Jacob’s grandmother, wrote, “My grandson tried to tell the bus driver that he did not live in that neighborhood and the bus driver would not listen to him. This is not OK, horrible communication from the bus barn. We could not reach them, and when my daughter stopped a bus to get help, even the bus driver could not reach them for 20 minutes and then they told us they didn’t have him.”

Jacob’s family called actually ended up calling 911 after he didn’t arrive home. Another bus driver had been flagged down, and even the driver attempted to find the boy, but none of the drivers responded to say they had him.

Meanwhile, Jacob’s brothers searched the neighborhood while Jacob tried to alert the driver that he was taking them away from their neighborhood off Knik-Goose Bay Road and toward Big Lake.

It wasn’t until 6:30 p.m. that Jacob and the other boy returned home. According to the family, Jacob does not want to take the bus again.

It was one of several instances that were addressed at the MSBSD School Board Meeting. Members of the school board called out Durham’s issues and discussed school policy and procedures when bus issues arise. They also advised that families and their students discuss school bus safety in hopes to avoid future issues.

Members also addressed possible penalties for the bus contractors for failure to meet the agreed terms of the 10-year contract, including fines and contract termination, a clause that was included in the contract with Durham.

School board President Ryan Ponder called the bus performance an “epic failure,” while echoing many parents concerns that the company had plenty of time to set up plans for bussing students in a safe and timely manner.

Durham School Services was awarded a 10-year contract in late 2021 that is reported to be worth nearly $200 million dollars. Durham replaced previous bus services that had been provided by First Student. Durham also serves the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District, and is a division of National Express LLC, which operates more than 22,500 school buses across over 550 school districts in the lower 48 and 3 Canadian provinces.

“There’s a lot of things that need to be ironed out on the first day, but we should never be ironing out where our children are at and the inability to communicate in the 21st century,” Mat-Ponder said.

During the meeting, William Zimmerman, Durham’s Northwest Region Manager, said the problems that occurred this week were the result of driver shortages, eight bus breakdowns, and issues with radio communications.

Zimmerman acknowledged that the Durham’s performance was unacceptable, telling the school board:

“This is completely unacceptable performance for the first day of school,” while adding an apology and Durham accepting responsibility, saying, “I recognize that, Durham recognizes that, and I want to take time to apologize to the community, to the school district and most importantly to the families.”

He also told the board that currently, Durham was 40 drivers short, adding that in an attempt to fix the problems, the company has brought in 27 employees from the lower 48 who weren’t familiar with routes. Meanwhile, 10 new drivers start Monday, with more in the pipeline after that, he said.

Also, Durham is working to install GPS on all of its buses as a means of tracking them, and they are also bringing in more workers to the dispatch center.

In response, National Express, which subsidizes Durham, said in an email, “We experienced traditional hiccups in our start-up operations with some delayed buses, missed stops, and busy phone lines. We apologize for any inconvenience this caused to families; this is not the level of quality service for which we are known,” wrote Edward Flavin, Vice President of External Communications.

He went on to say that they are working to recruit drivers and are re-deploying some additional staff to help with the backlog of phone calls and messages and are actively looking into all of the issues.

In addition, the MSBSD has also addressed specific efforts being made to improve transportation services offered by Durham School Services.

In a post shared on social media, Dr. Randy Trani, the Superintendent of MSBSD said that a plan has been developed that ensures a teacher or other school employee will accompany elementary students on all afternoon routes until further notice.

“District employees assigned to routes will remain in direct contact with the school’s front office throughout the duration of the route, so our families have the added assurance that their child is with a trusted and caring adult if they experience an unexpected delay or missed bus stop.”

Dr. Trani went on to say that MSBSD staff will work quickly to provide confirmation to parents anytime if there are any questions. This plan applies to all regular and special education buses serving core area elementary schools.

Additional steps to help avoid confusion include MSBSD increasing the number of staff answering phones at the Student Transportation Call Center.

“If your child’s bus is late: Call Durham dispatch first 907-885-3561 and if you do not get a dispatcher at Durham, call MSBSD Pupil Transportation (907) 761-4357 (HELP).”

Dr. Trani also said in the letter that when buses are delayed more than 15 minutes, Blackboard Mass Notification will be sent to the entire school community to further support messages getting to the right families.

While acknowledging that there is still much work to be done improve systems and regain trust, they are seeing improvements each day.

Durham School Services has also committed to increased support. In addition to senior leadership remaining on-site to oversee operations, Durham has prioritized additional drivers and dispatch personnel being flown in to support the location.

All of this is little comfort to families experiencing issues with bus services. As the family of Jacob Wentworth deal with the fallout of their situation, his mother, Karina Wentworth, addressed the school board, saying, “This was a big issue. I hope you don’t take it lightly.”