GROVEPORT, Ohio — Bus drivers not reporting accidents, students left stranded at bus stops and students showing up late to school because of a lack of bus drivers.
Those are just some of the problems the Groveport Madison school board says it could no longer tolerate and decided a change needed to be made.
The school board decided on Wednesday to give its transportation contract to Community Bus Services, Inc. at a cost of $6,342,512. The contract was previously with Petermann Transportation.
On Friday, bus drivers of Petermann showed up for work only to find their buses blocked by the school district cars.
Parents and bus drivers took to social media to voice their concerns.
The district said it had to block the buses after learning Petermann had planned to take the buses to other school districts.
"Having learned Petermann was planning to move a large percentage of the buses to other locations throughout the state, the district blocked the buses from leaving our property until the contract issue could be resolved," said Jeff Warner, the spokesperson for Groveport Madison Schools.
The bus blockade left an unknown number of students who attend charter and out-of-district schools stranded at the bus stop. The school district said it couldn't provide an exact number of students stranded because Petermann controls the bus route software.
The district has been at odds with Petermman since April when it was sued by the Ohio Department of Transportation for failing to get kids to school on time.
"We've had thousands of kids who didn't get to school because buses didn't show up. We've had thousands of kids every day who showed up late because buses have been running late," Warner said.
The school district filed a breach of contract lawsuit against Petermann Friday.
Petermann Transpiration sent 10TV a statement saying:
"We can confirm that a lawsuit has been filed and is pending litigation; therefore, we cannot comment further on the litigation.
As for the concerning situation experienced at our facility early this morning, we can confirm that representatives of the district surprisingly had our facility and passage blocked where we could not run any of the scheduled routes. The district chose to leave children on the side of the road this morning, without them and their families knowing if a bus would arrive to get them.
The safety of our students is our number one priority, and it is upsetting that the district did not put students first and made a conscious effort to stop us from doing what we are hired to do. Their decision made this critical role of transporting them impossible, and it posed an unnecessary problem for students and families in getting their kids to school. We have been informed that the Ohio Department of Education is currently involved and investigating this matter.
The statement went on to say the company's contract with the school district was improperly terminated.
The school district said it notified parents that despite the termination of the Petermann contract and assured them that Petermann will provide transportation to and from graduation Friday night. The new bus contract will start June 1.