Parents, drivers tell PGCPS board long rides, missed buses and safety risks amid routing chaos

Multiple parents and bus drivers told the board that the Chipmunk rollout created unsafe and unacceptable conditions at the start of the school year. At Dora Kennedy and Robert Goddard campuses parents reported buses making students wait for hours, buses driving on sidewalks to bypass gridlocked car lines, and children being left without assigned morning transportation.

Parent Rebecca Fleeson said she witnessed buses and cars driving onto sidewalks used by students and asked the board: "When did you know this?" Several parents asked for a dedicated bus at Dora Kennedy, better facility planning and immediate transparency on which students still lacked assigned routes. One parent said morning and afternoon commutes have jumped from roughly 30–60 minutes last year to three or four hours in some cases.

Bus drivers described operational impossibilities. Melissa Behringer said consecutive route times in her run sheet made it physically impossible to reach scheduled stops in the order assigned and that when buses were late students would not wait for an hour-plus delay. Another driver said training had not been provided, some buses lacked the software, and substitutions and missing manifests produced safety hazards.

Routing-room staff said implementation timelines have been repeatedly shortened while workloads grew and that the system sometimes reverts manual changes; routers described staffing shortages and working multiple bus lots. Speakers asked the district for a weekly public update with clear metrics (number of routed students, open cases, average ride times), a public dashboard of delays, and a clear protocol for real‑time communication between dispatch, drivers, schools and families.

Parents and drivers asked for immediate operational remedies — realistic routes, improved communications, temporary staffing support and restored retention incentives for drivers — and urged the board to center bus drivers’ experience in short‑term fixes.