The Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District will withhold at least $100,000 from its school bus contractor this month after hundreds of routes were late or canceled during the first five weeks of school.
As of Monday, Durham School Services had canceled 108 Mat-Su bus runs – about 3.4% of all routes – since the first day of school, district officials said, leaving parents to find other ways to get their students to and from school, often with little notice. Another 219 routes were at least 10 minutes late, they said.
The district can withhold contract payments for a wide variety of reasons, including late buses, canceled routes and children left unattended. Penalties begin after the first three full weeks of school and range from $50 to more than $820 per instance, according to the documents…