School Bus Issues Mar First Day Back for Tinton Falls Students

Busing issues plagued the on Thursday and gave students, including a first grader who did not get home until 5 p.m., a lesson in patience on their first day back.

Parents spoke out by phone, e-mail and Facebook about buses that were late, drivers who got lost and some that just didn’t show up to bring students to their first day of school.

The school district sent out a Honeywell Instant Alert around 6 p.m. on Thursday alerting parents to the situation and suggesting that they consider making alternate transportation arrangements for their children until the issues were resolved, according to

While the first three to five days of school always come with bumps in the proverbial busing road, Russo said, “This kind of delay is unacceptable.”

The routes at issue are handled by Durham School Services (formerly Murphy Bus Service), said Russo, which services 21 of the district’s 48 bus routes. He said calls to the bus company, based in Lakewood, went unreturned Thursday afternoon.

Russo said he spoke with a regional manager from Durham late Thursday afternoon and developed an immediate action plan that included:

• Enough drivers for all routes;
• Routes mapped out turn-by-turn for drivers;
• All drivers required to perform a run through of their routes on Thursday night with managers from the bus company.

"It was a big improvement this morning," said Russo of the busing.

Bus routes are awarded by the district through a competitive bidding process, he explained, and a number of companies provide transportation to district students.

One parent, who asked that her name not be used, wrote in an e-mail that her first grade daughter arrived home over an hour late after her bus made a drop off at Naval Weapons Station Earle in Colts Neck.

“I wouldn't have even thought that my daughter could have possibly been on a bus in another town,” she wrote.

Parent posted on Facebook that the bus was a half hour late to her Tinton Falls house Thursday morning and Joanne Cregg posted, “One kid showed up @ school in a taxi.”

Russo said that building secretaries made calls to parents of buses affected by delays Thursday afternoon to help “alleviate some anxieties.”

Durham did not return any calls to comment on this article.

“Our main concern is that the kids get to and from school safely,” said Russo.