ST. LOUIS — The school year is off to a rocky start for Missouri Central School Bus as they have not been a reliable form of transportation for students, according to St. Louis Public Schools parents.
Kate Klimut, a grandmother of a fourth-grade boy with a disability, said she has had to use Uber to get her grandson to school three times since school began in mid-August because she does not drive.
Editor's note: The above video was published on June 23.
Klimut said there have been days the bus was supposed to pick her grandson up at 8:18 a.m. and did not leave the station until 8:03, according to the Here Comes The Bus app. The bus then made several stops. At 8:51 a.m., the bus was still at another drop-off. The bus picked him up at 9 a.m. School starts at 9:10 a.m.
"He wants to go to school and he needs to go to school," she said. He attends Mullanphy Elementary School and must be transported with an aid per his Individualized Education Plan (IEP). The school has agreed to reimburse Klimut for her Uber trips.
"I have called repeatedly when the bus doesn't come within 20 minutes," Klimut said.
She said it takes between two and four hours to get through to Missouri Central School Bus because she is placed on hold, the phone hangs up or the line is busy.
Klimut said that her grandson does not have English-speaking parents and that she has to speak on their behalf. Due to the language barrier, she is not sure how many days he has missed in total.
The Here Comes The Bus app is meant to work in tandem with the bus company. The goal is to allow parents to see where their children are located on their phones and other personal devices. The app uses GPS tracking to better the entire operation and driver management. However, Klimut said it does not seem to work in real-time.
According to Klimut, the bus company has told her that they will call her when the bus is coming, but she says that has not happened yet.
Another parent, Lana Edwards, has one child at Compton Drew and two at Dewey International, which are schools that also use Missouri Central School Bus company.
Her children have already missed two weeks of school.
The single mom said the company is refusing to pick her children up from their assigned stop due to the location of the stop. Edwards' children are enrolled in before- and after-care programs at the daycare across the street which prohibits children in their care from walking out and crossing the street without supervision. She contacted the bus company and Edwards said they are not accommodating her.
The daycare has threatened to unenroll the children because the bus has dropped them off across the street. The daycare workers cannot leave other children unattended to walk her children to the bus stop.
The bus stop is on Page Boulevard past the Walton Avenue intersection, which means they would have to cross the busy street alone to be at the assigned stop.
Edwards said the bus company tells her they are coming to pick her children up, but the daycare tells her that no bus shows up to pick up her oldest child.
When she reached out to the supervisor and driver, she was told that they would be at the bus stop at the assigned time, but she had not seen them.
Edwards said her children's grades are dropping and her work is being impacted by this situation.
5 On Your Side has attempted to reach out to Missouri Central Bus Company through phone calls and email. The company has not provided a statement.
Missouri Central School Bus runs over 233 routes, some of which include pick up and drop off for Saint Louis Public Schools. The company is still hiring drivers, monitors, dispatchers, and more.