After months of school bus problems, D93 says the ride will be smoother this year
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IDAHO FALLS — One of the largest school districts in Idaho is preparing to begin the school year next week and changes that parents have requested are being made in the transportation department.
Bonneville Joint School District 93 experienced several issues last year that left many parents wondering when or if their children would be picked up.
Candice Preston and other parents in her Iona neighborhood say problems with their kid’s bus driver started on the first day. The driver was repeatedly late and sometimes failed to pick the children up.
“I really hope that District 93 has made some huge changes or has hired some more reliable drivers for this school year,” Preston says. “Now having my kids on two different busing schedules for two different schools will be double stress if we don’t have this under control and have reliable transportation for this school year.”
During the harsh winter months, Preston says kids would often wait in sub-zero temperatures for extended amounts of time for their bus to show up.
“I really don’t want a repeat of last year,” Preston says.
D93 Transportation Director Michael Graham tells EastIdahoNews.com the district was short on bus drivers the entire school year and things in much better shape now.
“We started last year with five drivers short and then we had a few other drivers that went on medical leave,” Graham says. “From our vantage point, here in transportation it was the trust level that I think we lost with the parents and also some of our kids. That hurt us very bad.”
The department struggled with hiring and maintaining people to drive buses and staff often had to fill in as drivers or attendants.
“You would have a different driver in the morning than you did in the afternoon. It was just an accumulation of a lot of issues that we struggled with the entire year,” Graham says. “When I took over this position, I promised the management team that we would actively recruit all summer and we would pull out all the stops to figure out how to do things a little bit different.”
The district has hired 13 new drivers with an additional five at different levels of training.
“They’ve got a lot of rules for us to follow, for us to have the kids follow and for us and the kids to be protected,” bus driver Amber Earl says. “I have a lot of trust and faith in them that they are doing what they need to do and implementing things that they see fit.”
Graham says the district cares about the safety of all children and he’s hoping for a smooth school year.
Even though the district is ready for school to start, drivers are still being recruited. Go to the D93 website to fill out an application.