For the third time in a single week, Jaime Hodge says her eighth-grade son had no regular bus to bring him home from West Buffalo Charter. On Monday and Tuesday, Hodge and her husband took turns driving over to pick him up themselves. By Thursday, the school was telling families that a driver still wasn’t available for his route.
According to WKBW, the school sent a prerecorded call on Thursday offering a bus ride an hour before dismissal, after a message said a driver was unavailable again for bus 458. Rather than nothing, families were told the school would send a bus at 2 p.m. as it tried to find a workaround. Buffalo Public Schools provides transportation to West Buffalo Charter through a contract with First Student, the outlet reported.
Hodge told the station her son, Zander, is at an important point in his academic career as he gets ready for high school and, eventually, college — he hopes to study engineering. She said missing classes, especially math, could hurt his future education, and that the disruptions aren’t new. “I’ve been dealing with spotty transportation for my son since Kindergarten,” she said, per the station’s report.
Parents Push Back on the Contractor
Hodge didn’t mince words about who she holds responsible. She said First Student isn’t fulfilling the service the district pays it to provide, telling the outlet, “they aren’t fulfilling what we’re paying them for.” She also said Buffalo Public Schools should review its contract and hold the company to its terms, the same report noted…