While the on-time arrival rate has gotten better, key benchmarks are still not being hit and officials want answers.
On the morning of the first day of school in Boston, about two thirds of buses did not arrive on time. A week later, members of Boston City Council are calling on state education officials to address the transportation issues.
In a letter that Councilors Ed Flynn and Erin Murphy sent to Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education Chair Katherine Craven Thursday, the councilors said that they had “profound concern” about the transportation problems. They urged Craven to instigate an investigation into the matter and to develop an action plan.
“BPS families want accountability and results. The transportation failure is unacceptable. We have asked state education officials to investigate the BPS transportation plan and offer recommendations to fix the growing problem. The status quo is not an option,” Flynn wrote in a post on X Friday.
The on-time arrival rate is normally poor on the first day of the school year in Boston before improving as drivers learn their routes and families learn their schedules. But the number of late buses this year was particularly striking. Just 34% of buses arrived on time on the morning of Sept. 5, according to data provided by Boston Public Schools. The on-time arrival rate rose to 61% the following day, and hovered around the rate through the early part of this week. The number of buses that arrived within 15 minutes of their goal was 62% on the first day of school and 84% on Tuesday of this week.