Bus Routes Cancelled School District Takes Action | Anchorage News

0:00It's September 11th. This is Anchorage News today, AI-powered stories from your city. Yo, so check it. In the Matsunuska Susetna School District, things have been kind of rough at the jump this year. We're talking about a whole bunch of school bus routes getting straight up canceled. Like 73 of them in the first 18 days, that's almost 3% of all the schedule rides, and parents are understandably heated. The district's pointing the finger at the bus company, Durham School Services, saying that ain't got enough drivers to cover the spots when people. Call out. This whole situation is happening under a nine-year contract that started back in 2021. Now it's worth remembering that this company and the district went through a two-month bus driver strike earlier this year. The drivers were raising concerns about safety, health care, and training. So this current mess with canceled routes is definitely adding fuel to the fire for a lot of folks. The district superintendent, Randy Tronney, made it clear they're not happy.

1:00He said they're hitting Durham with every penalty the contract allows. If the contract says they can find the company from missed routes, then that's exactly what they're doing. They're going to keep levying those fines until all the routes are back on track and running smoothly. Parents are feeling the strain, too. One mom at a recent meeting described the scramble to get kids to school when the buses don't show up. She emphasized that this can't be the new normal and that the kids deserve better. She even went as far as saying Durham needs to be fine or just kicked out of town. Right now, the district is working to enforce those contractual penalties and trying to get Durham to step up. They've got 127 drivers on the payroll with nine more temporary ones on the way this week, but clearly that's not enough to. Keep the wheels on the bus, so to speak. The district's stance is firm. They're going to keep the pressure on until the service improves.