As representatives from Safeway Transportation Services Corp. answered questions from Summit Hill Elementary District 161 officials about the dire transportation situation for the start of the school year, eighth-grader Kimora Franklin spoke calmly from the podium.
“Last week, one of my classmates arrived at school at least an hour and a half late,” said Kimora, one of two eighth-graders appointed to the student council. “So what did you do to actually address this problem?”
Michael Comstock, Safeway’s regional manager, responded that while he was unsure about this particular incident, he would send the district the GPS arrival times of the buses.
“I can hear you just fine,” Comstock said. “So I thank you for that.”
Parents and administrators in the district, which serves the Mokena, Frankfort and Tinley Park areas, have been frustrated with their bus service since classes began last month.
They said buses were not showing up at stops. In some cases, buses were arriving too early, causing students to miss the bus. Other parents said they waited nearly two hours for the bus to pick up their children in the morning. In the afternoon, some buses would return to school hours after the school day had ended and parents would receive a text message asking them to pick up their children.
“All of this has placed our students, their families, our staff and the district in a dangerous and inappropriate position to begin the school year,” Superintendent Paul McDermott said.
Earlier this month, Safeway CEO and founder Lucky Sahota took full responsibility for the rough start to the school year, and district officials asked him to return Wednesday to answer additional questions.
McDermott said families deserve reliable transportation. While many issues have been addressed, some bus routes are still too long, he added, and efforts are underway to reduce trips longer than 40 minutes.
He said he was “cautiously optimistic.”
“It’s better, it’s not perfect,” McDermott said.
Sahota said that since the last board meeting, the service has improved.
Comstock said the volume of calls the company receives from parents has decreased.
McDermott said the district is working with Safeway representatives to make sure parents and students have a better experience.
“These issues were not limited to District 161, but to many other districts, none of which saw this situation develop,” McDermott said. “There was no mention prior to the school year of any disruption to our service after a successful 23-24 year.”
McDermott said that after looking at the different options, no other bus company could step in and handle all of the district’s routes. Using multiple different bus companies for its routes could be confusing and detrimental, he said.
“Supporting Safeway in this situation is the best course of action,” he said.
The district has suspended payments to Safeway until the issues are resolved, McDermott said.
Over the past month, improvements have been made. Safeway now has 24 unique drivers serving the district, so routes don’t overlap, McDermott said.
The district continues to work on routes with Safeway so its students don’t spend too long on the bus.
The Here Comes the Bus app, which allows parents to track their children’s school bus, will go live on September 25.
The district received videos of the buses to help building administrators handle problems more effectively. Safeway also promised better service for after-school activities.
“I think progress has been made and transportation is improving,” McDermott said. “When buses are consistently on time, confidence builds.”
Consultative referendum
While district and Safeway officials have said the busing problems are not the result of the recent closure of two elementary schools, resident Patrick Oliphant said they have collected enough signatures from registered voters to get an advisory referendum on the Nov. 5 ballot.
The question asks voters whether they approve of how the district closed Arbury Hills and Frankfort Square schools without a corresponding reduction in property taxes.
The nonbinding referendum was challenged by Kevin McCleish, the husband of school board member Stephanie McCleish. Although a number of signatures were rejected, the question still garnered enough signatures to appear on the November ballot, the county clerk’s office said.
Oliphant said he wanted residents’ views to be heard.
Student representatives
At the start of Wednesday’s meeting, eighth-graders Kimora Franklin and Audrey Brown of Summit Hill Junior High School were selected as student council members and sworn in.
This is the first time the district has placed students on the board, which is rare for an elementary school district, officials said. Four interested students applied for the position, and the school board conducted interviews before making its selections.
Students cannot vote on certain issues and are not privy to confidential matters involving students and staff, but they can offer a student perspective, which will help guide board members’ decisions, board President Jim Martin said.
“The candidates were exceptional,” he said.
Kimora said she plans to enter politics to be “the voice of the voiceless.”
Audrey said she hopes having students involved in the council will improve the community.
At their first board meeting, they brought their student perspective to transportation and technology issues.
“We were missing a mechanism to communicate with students,” Martin said. “We are in the process of putting that mechanism in place.”
Michelle Mullins is a freelance journalist for the Daily Southtown.
