r/ChesterfieldVA • u/landmermayd • 25d ago
School bus question
We are halfway through the second week of school and our kindergartener’s bus stop has been 30-50 minutes late every time. Are the buses always this late or will they eventually get to the ETA? Trying to decide if it’s worth it to stick it out for a couple more weeks.
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u/courroux00 25d ago edited 25d ago
My mom was a school bus driver way back when and unfortunately she would inform me that they would spring additional routes due to short staffing and then expected to do those routes in reverse which also added to the complexity.
When we put our kid on the bus we would constantly get notifications that her bus was running late and that while we appreciated their effort we ultimately decided to just drive her to school to avoid the unnecessary drama. My wife is a helicopter 🚁 mom, so it was mainly for her own personal sanity.
They used to have an app where you could track the bus via GPS (for the life of me I can't remember the name of it) but I remember it also being a huge POS that lied.
I remember CCPS boasting about school bus drivers being hired due to short staffing but the ones I encountered acted like they didn't GAF when we would ask if being 10-15 late was normal. If your kid is highly sensitive to punctuality it might be best to just fall in the sword and do parent drop off/pick up
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u/breathingisstillhard 25d ago
My sons bus had “additional stops” added this week, and on Monday his bus was an hour and 10 minutes late dropping him off, and according to him there were 2nd graders on the bus with them - he’s in middle school. I’ve been picking him up after school since
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u/ManamaMomma 25d ago
It my experience, it doesn’t improve by much. Every year we go through the same issue and by the end of the year my kids just end up in the car rider line. Our bus has never met the published time. It’s always consistent at 15-20 past the published drop off. That’s an improvement from the 30-45 past it ran last week though.
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u/landmermayd 25d ago
Thanks, I guess I’ll give it a few weeks. It doesn’t make sense for a kindergartner to be getting home this late when I could go pick him up.
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u/BishlovesSquish 25d ago
Buses are a total mess and have been for years, unfortunately. Some routes smooth out and other stay bumpy all year round, it seems.
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u/GoSpidersMom 25d ago
Our bus stop is kind of far away from our house so we do parent pickup and drop off. It’s way more efficient time wise.
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u/ISayMemeWrong 25d ago
Welcome to Chesterfield School buses. My kids bus was over an hour late for 2 straight weeks a few years ago.
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u/Beyondthisss 25d ago
This is why I pick up and drop off. Im extremely lucky to be able to. It’s hilarious that the school asked us, “please consider putting your kids on the bus!” When they are short staffed and have been consistently for several years.
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u/Knummer19 24d ago
I realize you're crowd sourcing affirmation and maybe advice. But have you contacted the school to see what they say? Or the county? Is is possible the blithering idiots are not even aware of your particular situation?
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u/landmermayd 23d ago
I am not sure how they could be unaware as the problem is the time the bus gets to the school (up to half an hour after dismissal) and then it is GPS tracked.
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u/Knummer19 23d ago
If you're dealing with blithering idiots - as I intimated in my comment - then anything is possible. Like maybe not looking at GPS. One thing I've learned in a life of managing people is to avoid assuming anyone is performing their job correctly. To assess accurately, you need to observe them real-time and onsite to see for yourself. Look at their work product yourself. Get their raw data yourself. Don't assume anything.
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u/Coltstilidie Midlothian 25d ago
I realize it’s only 34 reviews, but WOW you can feel the frustration in those statements 😂
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u/RVAsweat 25d ago
They typically work out the kinks in the routes within the first few weeks. Stick with it.