Salem School Bus Delays To Start Year Present 'Challenges'

SALEM, MA — Salem Public Schools officials are monitoring some transportation hiccups to start the new school year and could be tweaking routes and possibly adding more buses as soon as Tuesday in an effort to get children to and from school buildings on time.

"As typical, we have challenges at the beginning of the year with getting our routes set as our routes start to flesh out in the first few days," Superintendent Steve Zrike said.

Zrike said that during the morning trips "things have been pretty smooth, in general," but allowed that there have been delays during after-school routes.

"Afternoon, we've got some challenges," he said. "There are about five buses that we know are running late. We are making adjustments as we speak. Many of them will go into effect on Tuesday.

"There are delays on a few of the big buses and some of the special education routes. We're adjusting in real-time."

Zrike said the district may be adding "a bus or two" and that any changes will be communicated to affected families.

"It will improve ridership and the experience because we want to make sure that we are staying true to arrival times as close as possible," he said, "and that we are getting kids to school on time, and that we're getting them home in a reasonable fashion.

"We are in a better place than we were. But we still have work to do."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)