Late School Bus Runs Has Pennsbury Parent Seeking Answers

FALLSINGTON, PA —George Demetriou works in Philadelphia. But he's found that it's faster for him to leave Center City to pick up his daughter and son, Elena and Elicio, from school instead of a Pennsbury School District bus doing it.

Since the beginning of the school year, Pennsbury has been plagued with late school bus runs. The issue has been discussed at nearly every school board meeting, except the one last week, until Demetriou brought it up during public comments.

In a prepared statement that he sent to Patch prior to the meeting, the Falls Township resident addressed the transportation issues with the school board.

Demetriou —whose children, ages 8 and 10, attend Newtown Friends School — said that he's spoken with the district's transportation director Milagro Aleman since October about the "habitual lateness" of his children’s bus, Pennsbury bus No. 22 (115).

He said a bus schedule was sent in August before the school year started stating that the estimated ride home from school would take about 45 minutes.

"For three months, from October through the end of December, that was not the case," he said.

The bus ride took about 90 minutes to 1 hour and 45 minutes during that span, Demetriou told the school board at its Jan. 19 meeting.

"I expressed my concerns to Director Aleman over those three months. I shared how the habitual lateness caused my kids to miss a number of activities because they got home so late. They had no interest in participating in their activities after such a long bus ride," he said in his statement.

"There were times when my kids were so stressed that they would miss some of their favorite activities that they asked me to leave work and pick them up from school," Demetriou said. "It was actually quicker for me to drive 30 miles from my Center City office to Newtown Friends School and then another 9 miles home. This was faster than my kids riding the bus home."

Demetriou said that he wanted to thank Aleman and the bus drivers for their hard work.

"There is still a concern about how we are moving forward with the bus driver shortage," he said.

Since January, the rides home have improved, averaging less than an hour, said Demetriou, adding that the bus has been running double routes.

"The lack of reliable school busing for 1/3 of the school year has forced students and parents to find alternative transportation solutions," he said. "Some students stopped taking the bus altogether. More parents started inconveniently driving their kids to school, and then there are parents that are incurring additional childcare costs due to aftercare expenses."

Double routes started as a short-term solution and should not be a long-term solution to resolve the bus driver shortage, Demetriou said.

Demetriou said that he works in Philadelphia and his wife works in Abington and they "rely heavily on dependable bus transportation."

He posed some questions to the board in concluding his statement:

• How many bus drivers was the district short at the beginning of the school year?
• How many bus drivers is the district currently short?
• What steps are being taken to ensure that these vacancies are filled by the beginning of next school year 2023/2024?
• How many routes are still currently experiencing delays? Which schools?
• Can you please send out a current bus schedule? I do not know what time my kids are supposed to be dropped off at home. The time has fluctuated between 45 minutes to 1 hour and 45 minutes for most of the school year.
• Will the double routes for Newtown Friends School students continue into the next school year 2023/2024?

At the end of the public comments, Schools Superintendent Thomas Smith addressed some of Demetriou's concerns.

He said the school board made the decision to conduct double bus runs instead of canceling runs. He also said the district is still down six bus drivers.

"Everyone is experiencing a shortage of drivers," Smith said.