ROANOKE, Va. – In an effort to address school bus issues in Roanoke, school leaders released a new pickup schedule.
Some students didn’t make it to school until an hour later at the start of the school year.
Some parents are sounding the alarm and are concerned.
Whitney Holland is a mom of two and was concerned when her daughter came home an hour late on the bus.
Holland had no communication, since her daughter doesn’t have a cell phone and like any parent was worried about her daughter when she didn’t come home after school.
Holland claims this issue stems from a few years and is looking for change.
“It’s like they’re trying to put a band aid on something that’s been going on for years back in 2019 when this all started, it’s time to get to the root cause of why this is happening,” Holland said. “There is a school board meeting happening on September 12th at 630, I encourage people to call so they can hear our frustrations.”
Durham School Bus Services handles the school bus routes in Roanoke City.
Chief Operations Officer Chris Perkins told school board members when drivers hit first day of school, traffic near Round Hill Elementary, Patrick Henry and William Fleming High Schools pushed the routes back 30-40 minute, which means middle schoolers who have the last start time were over an hour late to school.
Roanoke City School leaders posted a message on their Facebook page.
“If you have a young learner, a student in kindergarten, PreK or a student with disabilities, who utilizes special transportation please have a parent or guardian meet their child at the bus stop and if you’re not there, you have to know that our bus drivers cannot drop your child off,” Superintendent Verletta White with Roanoke City Schools said. “Safety is our top priority, we can’t drop them off if there is no one there to receive them, on the first day of school we had 71 students not met by parent of guardian.”
Leaders ask parents to download the bus tracker app to monitor your child’s location.