Late buses still problem at some schools

Boston school officials have added seven more buses to their working fleet and scheduled additional route changes for tomorrow morning as they continue their effort to reduce the number of children arriving late to class each day.

Nearly 15 percent of Boston school buses were late for school again Friday, a modest improvement from the prior week, when 19 percent of buses were late.

Administrators said many of the buses were arriving just a few minutes late - as opposed to an hour behind schedule, as some were weeks ago. With the additional changes coming this week, they hope they will boost on-time arrivals to over 90 percent.

“We’ve seen statistical gains. It hasn’t just been incremental; it’s been legitimate,’’ said Kim Rice, the Boston Public Schools’ assistant chief operating officer, who oversees transportation, “I’m very encouraged.’’

But problems continued to dog particular schools. At the Edison School in Brighton, fewer than half the buses made it to school on time last week. Buses averaged 42 percent on time for the week, according to the principal, who reported buses still arriving more than a half-hour late.

The rampant delays this fall follow the district’s decision to compress bus routes this year in an attempt to maximize efficiency. Even with that, however, its contract with transportation company First Student Inc. rose $3 million this year, to $66 million. The seven new buses, added last week, will cost an additional $350,000 this year.

“What we’ve done overall is we’ve attempted to ‘optimize’ and utilize our buses to full capacity. Just a few years ago, we were criticized for having empty buses,’’ said Rice. “Now folks are noting that we are being very efficient with the number of kids getting on buses.’’

Buses are considered on-time if they arrive at a school by the appointed time, not if students get to class on time. Three buses were officially late for the 9:20 a.m. bell at the Paul A. Dever School in Dorchester on Friday, though dozens of children were still emerging from a half-dozen school buses after that, accepting “bus tardy’’ slips from a parent volunteer who was helping the assistant principal inside.

The last bus unloaded at 9:32 a.m. after assistant principal Alberto Molina had already read the Pledge of Allegiance over the school loudspeaker. Soon, Molina was chiding a late-arriving girl and boy for running in the hallway. “I just want to get here,’’ the girl explained.

Still, district officials say the delays are much shorter than in recent weeks. On Oct. 25, 25 percent of buses were arriving late to school - some by nearly an hour.

City and school officials met with an executive from First Student on Monday, and Mayor Thomas M. Menino threatened to take the city’s transportation contract elsewhere if the company didn’t fix delays.

A spokesman for First Student on Friday provided a statement that said: “We continue to work closely with our partners in the school district to improve our service. Our IT professionals are working with BPS to modify the routing software as necessary, and company leaders are onsite to ensure we are operating in a timely manner.’’

Deputy superintendent Michael Goar said the city is exploring all its options in dealing with its busing contract, which runs through 2013, and will try to assess penalties for late arrivals. The company, however, is likely to contest penalties if it can blame the delays on inefficient routes.

Goar also said the district intends to seek reimbursement from First Student for the salaries of district employees who have been working at the bus yards to oversee the contractor’s operation.

“We feel strongly that we’re doing their job,’’ said Goar. “We’ll be pursuing all our options within the contract as well as to get reimbursement.’’

But bus drivers argue that the problems stem from the routes that the city consolidated this year.

“They designed the routes to cut time and money,’’ said Joseph Gervais, a driver since 1995, who delivered students late to the Dever School on Friday. “But they cannot make the drivers make up for the time. We left on time. There’s nothing we can do.’’

Gervais was 11 minutes late in starting his Dever School route Friday - a delay he blamed on insufficient time built into his schedule to travel from his charter school drop-off to his first stop for Dever on Geneva Avenue.

With few students waiting along the chilly route, he began making up time along the way. By the time one mother honked her horn and got her son out of her car to put him on the bus, he was just one minute late.

But as he made his 21st and final stop, Gervais was six minutes late, and traffic was picking up along Columbia Avenue. Intersections in Uphams Corner, Everett Square, and Dorchester Avenue were ensnared with cars. He didn’t get the bus to the Dever School until 9:21 a.m. - and then, he still had to snake through the parking lot and join a long line of buses unloading students. The students entered the school five minutes after the bell rang, as teachers who were still stationed outside the school marked them off on clipboard lists.

The bus inconsistencies have frustrated the families of some 32,684 students who are assigned to 618 bus routes, upending parents’ work schedules and confusing young children who are trying to get used to new school routines.

“I understand that people can be late but there’s just a dual effect on my responsibilities as a working parent and her own comfort level,’’ said Kory Eng of Roslindale. A United Way executive, Eng was late for a meeting this past week because the bus picked up his 3-year-old prekindergartener more than a half-hour late. “We’re not expecting perfection,’’ he added. “I think there’s some real operational inefficiencies going on.’’

By Friday, he was pleased that his daughter had been picked up on time; he had even received an e-mail apology from the district.