Two Boston City Council members say the morning pickup and afternoon drop off delays involving Boston school buses to start the school year have reached a breaking point, and they went before the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on Tuesday to demand something be done about it. This after claiming their initial efforts went unnoticed.
City councilors Ed Flynn and Erin Murphy are asking DESE to conduct a thorough investigation into the root causes of these delays that really began on day one, when only about a third of buses made it to school on time.
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At that time, Boston Public Schools officials said delays are common in the first week of school. But two weeks later, the issue still persists.
"Just this morning, I got a call from a single mom where three weeks into school she still doesn't have a bus for her son," Murphy told DESE on Tuesday. "And when she gets the hotline to call at BPS, they're hanging up on her and not helping her. So it's not just the first few days to get the kinks out. We're into the third week and they're not willing to talk to us."
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Mayor Michelle Wu and school officials have said the delays are due in part to new technology and route changes due to an uptick in enrolled students.
