HOWARD COUNTY, Md. — Students are getting to school late because of bus issues, it's been an ongoing problem in Howard County. New start times went into effect Wednesday, an effort by the school superintendent to get things back on track.
Parents and students still aren't sure it's going to make much of a difference.
School buses file one by one out of the lot in Howard County. Many sit vacant because the district still needs drivers.
Superintendent Michael Martirano sent out a letter to parents stating new start times will support on time arrival of school buses.
It's the latest effort to clean up the transit issues, but the first day of this new schedule still has parents concerned.
"I can take my son to school in the morning. But in the afternoon when he comes from school, I can't pick him up. So they're waiting now for the commuter bus,” said Kimberly Queen, a parent of an Atholton High student.
With school now letting out at 2:35, at Atholton High, the bus doesn't come until 3:15.
"And so now he's walking instead of waiting, but then he's coming home from school when it rains and he's soaking wet. Because he doesn't want to wait that long period of time,” said Queen.
It's an issue the students and parents have seen since the first day.
"One time I believe I came to school like 20 minutes late, so transportation has been bad and my parents can't take me because they have to work in the morning so I have to find some way to get to school,” said Gerson Mardi, a senior at Atholton High School.
Even with the new start times, not everyone is optimistic it will make much of a difference.
"I feel like it's not really effective because it's only like 10 minutes but the thing the county should have done is fix these buses that's their main issue. The start time isn't going to change nothing buses are still going to come late and stuff,” said Mardi.
The district says it's still evaluating the morning commute and gathering GPS data from the buses. It is seeing improvements with the new schedule.
In a statement from Zum Transportation, they address these updates as well:
Early transportation issues have been systematically addressed. Zum’s route coverage has been consistently at or near 100% since the beginning of September. All vendors covering 3-tier routes experienced delays during early weeks, including Zum. The district’s change this week from the initial overly-compressed bell schedule has led to on-time performance returning to normal levels.
To be clear, many of these critics already had years of opportunity to address the bussing challenges of Howard County, but were simply not successful. As a result, Zum inherited a multi-year driver shortage of 40+% in Howard County. Since being awarded the contract, Zum’s combination of relentless recruiting and industry leading pay has fully eliminated the driver shortage on Zum’s Howard County routes.
We will continue to do the important work to best serve the families of Howard County.
