HOUSTON — After a rocky start to the new school year for the Houston Independent School District, Superintendent Mike Miles addressed some of the issues that impacted students on Monday.
In a news conference Monday afternoon, Miles said although there are issues to fix, he called it a "successful first day of school," as all 274 campuses were able to open.
KHOU 11 News received numerous concerns from HISD parents over bus routes, school staffing levels, power and air conditioning.
Just before 9 p.m. Sunday, HISD said that more than 17,000 had been assigned bus routes, but around 700 students still didn't have theirs.
Some parents even received the wrong route information.
"That's a big deal. to have a last-minute notification with the wrong route. So, that's unacceptable. We'll get that right," Miles said.
Parents said they're worried thinking about someone else having their child's pick-up and drop-off time and location.
"As a parent of two students in HISD, it's ... it's a little nerve-wracking," they said. "I believe this is a violation. You know, as parents, as you know, our school district has a responsibility to protect our children's information, and they failed us."
Other parents said this leaves them concerned about the rest of the year.
"That's very concerning," Jessica Catrett said. "It's a gross mismanagement. They cut transportation funding. You know, maybe if they hadn't done that, you know, they could have gotten the proper route information to parents."
Parents who didn't have route information were told to contact a district helpline.
However, some parents who tried to contact the terminals said they were put on hold for more than an hour with no one ever answering. Others said they could not get through at all.
During the conference, Miles said they would add eight more staff members to the call centers to handle a higher volume of calls.
Miles acknowledged the district didn't work out all the bugs in "EduLog," the transportation software HISD adopted, before the first day of school.
In an email sent to parents Monday evening, the district apologized saying, in part, "We are aware that you may have received an email with incorrect route information yesterday, and we apologize for the mistake." The email included the correct route information for students. Read the full letter here.
The superintendent said around 2,000 students rode the bus to school Monday. Some buses were a few minutes late due to the "chaotic" nature of the first day of school, according to Miles.
Miles said the district is working to route all newly enrolled students within 72 hours.
"Keep in mind, kids enroll every day. Over the last few days, kids have enrolled," he said.
The district will assess routes where ride times are too long and will correct any bus stop that is more than three miles from the student’s address, according to Miles.
When asked about air conditioning issues, Miles said the district was "on top of it." He said is it likely some campuses will experience AC issues through October.
Miles took the time to thank the district's maintenance crew for their work on several campuses following the derecho storm in May and Hurricane Beryl in July, which damaged buildings and AC units.
Jackie Anderson, the president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, said there's more to it.
"Playing catch up and the two storms didn't help. But when you have let everybody go, that's what happens, is poor planning again on Mr. Miles's part," she said.
Anderson is a former educator. She said some issues on the first day of school are expected, but Monday was "chaotic."
"We do expect things to be more organized," she said.
Parents react
Some parents said they still didn't have a bus route for their kids as the second day of school approached.
"Today was pretty nerve-wracking. I knew it was going to be chaotic," Charley-Renea Bahal said.
She said her first-grader goes to a school about 20 minutes away from their house but as of Monday night, she still didn't have the bus situation figured out.
"We don't have a bus route. Not sure if anyone else does," she said.
She's not the only one dealing with issues. Other parents said they got the wrong bus route for their students.
"It included bus route information but it wasn't for my child -- they sent me another child's name and the location of their bus stop," Catrett said. "I never received a bus time pickup for my child -- when his bus route was."
Other parents said the bus routes were too long and their kids would be forced to have 12-hour days before getting home.