ST. LOUIS — Concerned parents got the chance to air their grievances over St. Louis Public Schools' transportation issues Tuesday night.
Students head back to school in less than two weeks, and the district is dealing with turmoil over its leadership and budget.
Even before the district's Board of Education put Superintendent Dr. Keisha Scarlett on temporary leave, the biggest concern for parents this summer is how the district plans to get more than 15,000 students to school this year.
More than 100 people, including parents and transportation vendors like Metro Transit, gathered at Vashon High School to discuss solutions. Missouri Central canceled its contract, which provided 230 bus routes last year.
One solution is to give nearly 1,700 high school students Metro passes.
Meeting attendee LaTanya Campbell said she's frustrated by the district's response. Her family has decided to drive their 13-year-old freshman granddaughter to Gateway High School every day instead of making her take the MetroLink.
"I'm really, really afraid," Campbell told 5 On Your Side. "I'm afraid because there was a killing on a bus for public transportation last year. Innocent bystanders got hit. That could have been me. That could be my granddaughter this year."
We asked the district how it decided which bus routes to use for the 2024-25 school year. George Sells, the SLPS director of communications and marketing, said they put "everything into an algorithm."
"(We're) finding out the best ways to do it through technology," Sells said. "Other ways we're doing it is asking families who maybe don't use our transportation but have kind of held a spot to go ahead and opt out of that transportation. If you have to move fewer kids, you have fewer routes."
Sells said he couldn't comment on questions about the status of the superintendent situation.
The state auditor is coming to St. Louis on Thursday after calls from Mayor Tishaura Jones to look into how the district went from a $17 million surplus to a projected deficit of $35 million.
The first day of school for SLPS is Aug. 19.