ST. LOUIS — The bus company that gets St. Louis students to school announced Monday they’ll be going through a series of layoffs after terminating their contract with St. Louis Public Schools.
The Missouri Central School bus contract was supposed to continue through the 2024-2025 school year, but now it could end as soon as the middle of July.
St. Louis Public Schools said it’s been a tumultuous two school years dealing with Missouri Central School Bus company, saying in a statement Monday afternoon, “Missouri Central’s inability to maintain enough drivers to transport the students of SLPS has been well-documented. They report that the driver shortage makes it economically unviable for them to honor their agreement.”
The district said they were given no notice that the company would be making this public announcement.
Missouri Central said in that letter, “Despite good faith efforts by both sides, the parties were unable to negotiate mutually agreeable terms.”
That means they’re going to permanently close the Spring and Hall Street locations, leaving 332 people without jobs.
SLPS said it has been negotiating with the bus company since December, when MCSB demanded an additional $2 million.
Then in February, mechanics for the company raised concerns about racial discrimination, even finding a noose near a workstation which led to a driver walkout.
For two days thousands of students had no transportation to school.
Parents are already tired of the uncertainty.
“Once and awhile is understandable but consistently it's affecting our jobs,” parent Adam Martin said.
These parents spoke with 5 On Your Side in February when they had to pick up their kids last minute.
“For us it's just really challenging because we have two people in our household who both work and as much as I have a lightly flexible work schedule it is asking a lot to ask my supervisors to please be able to adjust my schedule in order to be able to leave early from work in order to come pick up,” parent Amber Gordan said.
The district said the company told them last week the controversy “provided irreparable harm to their reputation and said they could no longer work with Saint Louis Public Schools.”
You can read both full statements below.
Saint Louis Public Schools statement
Missouri Central School Bus statement