HOUSTON – Students forced to walk more than two-miles to school promised bus rides no later than Tuesday were stranded again in northeast Houston.
Houston ISD’s Chief Operations Officer Brian Busby said the district is working to fix the problem but did not give a specific date.
“You fix it in this area but then there’s an issue over here because we’re so large,” Busby said.
Rides promised to kids at Forest Brook Middle and six other former North Forest schools never showed.
“(My son) didn’t get on a bus,” Will Lewis said. “We waited about two hours.”
“(District transportation officials) told me there’s a little glitch in the system,” Tracy Moore, whose granddaughter is a freshman at North Forest High School.
Busby knows no quick fix.
“On the first day of school, every single thing that could have gone wrong did,” he said.
The district added new GPS tracking software that did not work that first day. Also, new computer programming designed to streamline the way HISD routes buses did not work properly. The software miscalculated walking route distances and excluded students who qualify for bus pick-up from getting rides.
Initially 9,000 students had bus problems, Busby said. Though, 90-percent of bus riders got to school on time as of Tuesday, Busby added.
Last week, 400 children were left to walk more than two-miles or get rides from parents to and from school in northeast Houston.
“With this superintendent’s direction, whatever we need to do to fix the problem, fix it,” Busby said.
He added that software writers are working with his staff to correct route errors. However, with more riders and no extra money budgeted for this school year, it is hard to say when all students will have a bus.
“You don’t just infuse 6,000 more students into a transportation system without there being some hiccups along the way. Your child is very important to us and our every intention is to fix this very, very quickly as we are doing daily to get your kid to school on time.”
For parents, like students, waiting is the hardest part.