Superintendent Apologizes for Transportation Mess

The School Committee reported being bombarded by phone calls and emails from distraught parents whose children were not picked up by the right bus at the right time on the opening day of school.

The committee voiced its concerns to the superintendent at the Tuesday meeting at which time Superintendent Diana Rigby had a chance to apologize.

"Mistakes were made," said Rigby at the joint Concord and Concord-Carlisle committee meeting. "It's disappointing."

The "perfect storm" happened, according to Rigby, when a new transportation manager used new software to manage all the routes and stops that used to be done on paper with changes on sticky notes. Add to that, the software trainer "wiped out" a chunk of the bus stops which cascaded through the system, said school Finance Director, John Flaherty.

Committee member Maureen Spada said the problems were "wide-ranging." She said she heard from parents that stops were moved, there was no pick up for some students, buses came early and late, and walkers did not have adequate safety.

"We are working through the list of problems as we are aware of them," said Flaherty. He said training was provided during the summer and "stops in the system were wiped out."

"We didn't know until the calls came in," said Flaherty. "We are adding the stops back and it should all be done by the middle of next week."

Flaherty said phone lines are being added to the transportation office so parents can report problems to the new transportation Manager, Spyros Saucier. Flaherty said there are more staff people hired to handle the whole matter. He is also adding a driver so buses can make shorter runs.

Rigby said buses cannot pick up high school students before 6:30 a.m. so alterations in the routes, especially unadvertised ones, affect pick ups for the middle school and finally for the elementary schools.

"There are interdependencies," said Rigby.

The former manager knew all the families, for the most part, and all the streets and stops, and ran the system on paper, Flaherty said. But Saucier and the new automated system are new, and the adminisgtration trusted that the computer would handle all the street-level intracacies such as sidewalks and street changes.

"We are building a baseline on the computer, not on notebooks," said Flaherty. "The routes are not the same as they were last year."

Rigby said the automation is a "painful opportunity to professionalize the system and increase efficienty." She stressed that safety and efficiency are the top priorities. And communication with parents.

"It was too much all at once," said committee member Peter Fischelis.

Flaherty said he would republish the routes next week on the school website. He said each school's website would also have the updated changes.