The start of the school year was delayed in Shelton over uncertainty surrounding school bus services, and parents are blaming the mayor.
Last year, Mayor Mark Lauretti insisted the city should take over school bus service, saying it would save the city money. He sued the board of education. The final agreement was that the board of education would move forward with using a third-party company to provide buses for the 2018-2019 school year, but that the city would take over for three years beginning on July 1.
When the city started providing bus transportation in July, they did not drug test the drivers.
Then last week, Mayor Lauretti said they ran into more problems ahead of the start of school on Tuesday, Sept. 3.
“Durham bus company who was the previous provider did not provide the files to us until Wednesday of last week, the files for all the drivers. Not only that, they offered a big incentive for any bus driver to leave and come work for them and we lost 10 bus drivers on Tuesday of last week,” he said.
Durham said when its contract with the city was terminated employees were told they could apply for other positions in the company.
“Over the summer, we did not hire any of the affected employees. They were all instructed to attend the start-up meeting by the City of Shelton,” a Durham spokesperson said in a statement.
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As of Friday, Mayor Lauretti said they were only missing a few drivers. Lauretti said he would have gone ahead and had school on Tuesday.
“It wasn’t my call. I didn’t cancel school,” said Lauretti. “It was the superintendent’s.”
He went on to say, “I’m not sure it’s fair to shut the whole system down because you’re short one or two drivers. This happens everywhere in America.” Lauretti said “Districts run short of drivers and nothing stops. People have to be a little flexible and bear with it until we get through it.”
Approximately 50 parents and community members protested outside city hall on Tuesday morning. They still had not received information on where their child’s bus stops will be or what time they will be picked up. They blame the mayor for the start of school being delayed.
“They [the city] have insisted from the very beginning that they could save lots and lots of money doing it, they could do it better, they could do it cheaper and now we’re learning, no, they actually can’t. And yet their saying it’s not their fault. It’s always everybody else’s fault,” said Angela Pellegrino-Grant, a parent from Shelton.
On Tuesday afternoon, Shelton schools posted bus routes online and said they were waiting for updates from the Shelton Student Transportation Service to determine whether there are enough drivers who have been approved by the DMV to transport students.
Later the same day school officials confirmed buses would run and classes will start Wednesday.
The superintendent said they condensed some bus routes, cutting down from last year's 58 to 56. Right now there are 56 drivers serving the district, and they still hope to hire more. Last year there were 60 drivers.
Other parents like Rose Scott said this delay is an embarrassment to the city. She and other parents are in the process of finding backup childcare for their children because school could be delayed for a couple more days.
“I work Thursday, so I don’t know what I’m going to do with them. A lot of moms I know work full time and they’re struggling to try and find child care,” Scott said.
When Lauretti sued the school district to take over bus operations, he said in court that doing so would save the city a million dollars. Now, he said, “we’ll know in a year.”
“We own and operate our own buses now and we’ll do it more cost effective than anybody," he added.
