ZEPHYRHILLS, Fla. — Getting to and from school safely, and on time, each day is important for student success, but one Pasco County mother says the school bus is preventing her son from doing both of those things.
Thelma Chavarria says the school bus has been late more than it has been on time, and its drop off location is dangerous for her 8-year-old son.
“Two point two miles away so it’s nowhere near here yet,” Chavarria said Friday as she tracked her son’s school bus on the app. That’s how she says she spends her mornings and afternoons, even when she’s at work, closely monitoring Isaiah’s school bus.
“Since he’s started school, it’s been late every day to pick up and drop off,” she said.
On Friday morning, she received a text at 5:59 a.m. saying his school bus would be 30 minutes later, a message she receives almost daily. The bus is supposed to pick Isaiah up at 9:34 a.m. in front of their home on Chancey and Kalman Drive. School starts at 9:35 a.m., and while it is a short drive, Chavarria says the bus has yet to show up on time.
“I call, call, call, they tell me it’s documented in my notes, someone will call me back, but I haven’t gotten a call or email, nothing, I told the school, they told me to tell the bus transportation because that’s their responsibility, and I’ve heard nothing,” she said.
As she waited for the bus on Friday morning, Thelma said the late pickups and drop offs are actually the least of her concerns. What she is more worried about is the drop off spot, on the other side of Chancey Road, which is cut through for traffic to I-4.
“When I call the bus transportation, they tell me that it’s not going to change, it’s a new route and he’s going to be dropped off there, and I’m to trust the bus driver. Which I trust the driver but not the road, the drivers. It’s unsafe for him to cross this road. All you see are semi-trucks, for instance. Right now, it’s a busy, busy road and my concern is his safety, my safety, and my kids safety,” she said.
By the time the bus finally arrived today at 10:28 a.m., nearly an hour after school started, she had already given up and took Isaiah to school herself, but she says with all the time he’s missing in the classroom, and the time she’s missing at work, taking the school bus is taking a toll on everyone.
Pasco County School officials said the bus drops off on the opposite side of the road for efficiency, and it would add 20 minutes to the route if it dropped Isaiah off where it picks him up.
School officials say the driver deploys the stop signs to stop traffic until students safely make it across. They say they’re currently looking into the route to see if they can make it more efficient.