D-158 blows late-bus notification

Gus Philpott
Woodstock Advocate
November 22, 2010

The following comment was sent to me today, when a parent wanted to complain - loudly - about the failure of a school district to give notice to parents of bus delays.

Schools know that parents worry if the buses are three minutes late. I think it could be called the Columbine Syndrome. Obviously, the school's transportation director knew the buses would be late. When did he or she know it? 15-30-60 minutes or more before the buses even picked up the kids from school?

So why wasn't notice given then that buses "might" be late? Here's what the parent had to say...

"Well, let me tell you, D-158 transportation department really dropped the ball on the parents today. They held the kids at school because of the tornado watch and the transportation didn't send out a NIXLE until 15 minutes after the scheduled bus drop-off times. When I received the NIXLE on my cell phone, it was so garbled that I couldn't even understand what it was saying.

"I wouldn't be so upset except that nobody at Transportation was even answering the phones. What is that all about? >:-(

"At the beginning of the school year, D-158 made a big deal about all the $$$ they spent on some kind of computer software for the transportation department to notify parents if there were bus delays, and this is what we get. 15 minute NIXLE delays that you can't even understand.

"(And I don't know WHAT that software money was spent on because we had NIXLE before they plunked down that big wad of cash.)"