JEFFERSON PARISH, La. — The Jefferson Parish Public School District is only a few weeks into the new school year and parents are raising concerns.
Dominique Peters relies on the school bus to get her third grader to class and back.
"It's a headache," Peters said. "I put him on the bus for because that’s how I need him to get to school and home so it’s really irritating."
But she says the bus has been anything but reliable. Peters says for the past few weeks of school the bus has been inconsistent.
"What’s really been inconsistent the past couple of weeks is the time the bus comes. It’s literally a 30-minute window," she said. "Either we’re not moving fast enough and I don’t know that because the bus comes earlier or we’re moving fast enough and my son is losing out on sleep and time we could use elsewhere."
Peters says the first few days of school she had to take him herself. She says she doesn't blame the bus drivers, but says she worries the district's consolidation plan has exacerbated these problems, without any communication from the district.
We received messages from half a dozen parents experiencing similar issues with their child's bus transportation.
School board member Michael Pedalino says the consolidation wasn't going to fix everything, but says they are working everyday to address the concerns.
"We’re buddying the routes, trying to consolidate a few routes right there so we are picking up so that every kid does not get left behind. We’re trying to do ride share data to see what routes maybe we can improve upon because one thing we are trying to do, look we are always trying to improve," he said.
The district says they notify parents when there's going to be an interruption in their bus service. They say parents can call the district's transportation hotline at 504-349-8999. The line is open until August 25.