HoCo School Bus Clusterf*ck

[Stoveman]

School Superintendent Martirano slicked the county into hiring a new bus contractor, Zum, and it didn't go so well yesterday.

Howard County Public Schools bus issues have parents frantic on first day: 'No bus came'

Howard County Public School System Superintendent Michael Martirano apologized to families after school bus issues got the new year off to a rocky start.

www.cbsnews.com

I know what you're thinking, the first day of school always has it's hiccups, but wait, there's more. Parents got an email last night that this Zum company will not be able to cover 20 routes for the rest of this week.

‘Make alternative arrangements’: Howard Co. says school bus delays will continue amid driver vacancies - WTOP News

On Monday, thousands of Howard County students showed up late to their first day back after school buses didn’t show up on their scheduled routes.

wtop.com

 

[Norton]

I'm laughing my ass off over this.

HoCo schools and the hubris of superiority is eating the shit sandwich that AACO and BaltCo suffered all last year.

Fvck em. Couldn't happen to nicer people.

 

[smokey]

I have a LOT to say on this topic. HoCo lefties paid more for a green bus company from Cali that promises electric busses, but only has diesel. They say they'll offset emissions by giving money back to hoco lefty environmental groups.... so a kickback out in the open.

They're a failure. Dismissal at my school starts at 3:40 and the end of the contractual workday for teachers is 4:05. That's when we can walk out. At 4:10 no busses had arrived at school.

AT 5:15 the last bus left the school to start its drop-off route. The morning was equally as bad.

 

[Tungsten]

HoCo parents are pissed at this whole deal. Martirano was supposed to attend a town hall last night. It will be fun to hear about how bad they chewed his butt.

It is amazing how fast hoco has fallen in just a few short years. We are thinking about moving regardless of mortgage rates.

 

[jc1240]

I'm mildly interested in that money trail.

 

[Bountied]

HoCo parents are pissed at this whole deal. Martirano was supposed to attend a town hall last night. It will be fun to hear about how bad they chewed his butt.

It is amazing how fast hoco has fallen in just a few short years. We are thinking about moving regardless of mortgage rates.

We almost moved to HoCo, almost...

 

[Tungsten]

Ever since we moved here we have said that we didn't move far enough away from Baltimore. The stupidity is spreading.

 

[D&Ds]

View attachment 428818
I have a LOT to say on this topic. HoCo lefties paid more for a green bus company from Cali that promises electric busses, but only has diesel. They say they'll offset emissions by giving money back to hoco lefty environmental groups.... so a kickback out in the open.

They're a failure. Dismissal at my school starts at 3:40 and the end of the contractual workday for teachers is 4:05. That's when we can walk out. At 4:10 no busses had arrived at school.

AT 5:15 the last bus left the school to start its drop-off route. The morning was equally as bad.

Zum is under contract to supply non-diesel powered buses and drivers, supplies diesel powered buses and no drivers? You just gotta love government contracting processes.

 

[Stoveman]

I'm laughing my ass off over this.

HoCo schools and the hubris of superiority is eating the shit sandwich that AACO and BaltCo suffered all last year.

Fvck em. Couldn't happen to nicer people.

It gets better, a good portion of the bus routes that won't be manned run right through the heart of deep blue libtardia.

Scrolling through the lib Book of Faces pages last night was hilarious, lefty soccer moms bitching about their kids bus being diesel and wondering if Zum was going to buy carbon credits? Never mind the fact that one driver kicked a mistaken middle schooler off a high school bus mid route. Oh, you're going to the MS and not the HS? Get out? Wut? Get out now.

 

[jc1240]

Ever since we moved here we have said that we didn't move far enough away from Baltimore. The stupidity is spreading.

It's a cancer and continues to spread. Carroll has started to metastasize. Moved out here from Irvington when I was 5. Of all things my parents did for me and my brother, that move is probably still the most important.

 

[StantonCree]

Lol we just moved to Howard. It was our daughters first day riding a bus. Hers was the last to arrive at the school. She was crying. She will be okay, builds character.

 

[Raineman]

I'm curious, what was wrong with the old bus service that there needed to be a change? Most of the time its a great idea to not try to fix something that isn't broken.

 

[whistlersmother]

I saw Zum running routes two weeks ago.

No excuse for drivers not knowing the routes.

I guess parents can't complain about diesel busses since the bus didn't even show up.

All this was because a driver/bus shortage last year.

Follow the money right back to the super's and boards' pockets.

I wonder who all the new drivers are? Illegals? That would be icing on the diesel-powered cake.

And HoCo won't vote any different - because the parents just can't admit they were wrong in selection of (D)'s.

Let them eat cake.

 

[Stoveman]

 

[possumman]

Parent on TV last night saying new drivers came from Spokane and don't know their way around

 

[Stoveman]

I'm curious, what was wrong with the old bus service that there needed to be a change? Most of the time its a great idea to not try to fix something that isn't broken.

Multi part problem that, IMO, starts and ends with that douchebag Martirano.

The decision to keep HoCo schools closed during the Coof meant that a lot of the bus drivers took other jobs so when they finally re-opened schools there was a bus driver shortage.

And Martirano pushed a massive re-districting effort, in the name of equity, so now a lot of kids are going to different schools that are much farther away, some riding right past their old school.

And the new contract, which I would bet some of the money finds it's way back to Martirano, with a fledgling California bus company.

 

[MaxVO2]

*****Well, we all know the solution they come up with will mean increasing taxes in HoCo.

 

[spoon059]

Nobody is asking the really important questions here... does this effect the trans agenda and DEI initiatives within the schools? I'm worried that with some of these kids being late to school they are missing out on some of these key skill sets...

 

[TheBert]

I'm curious, what was wrong with the old bus service that there needed to be a change? Most of the time its a great idea to not try to fix something that isn't broken.

Self hate, paying $70K per bus route wasn't punishment enough they had to raise it to $98K.

My sister's county in SC had this problem some 25 years ago when switching bus company's. The company said they under bid the contract and needed more money. They got laughed out of court and operated the busses without earning a profit for three years.

 

[Biggfoot44]

Actually , my first thoughts were that usta be students within 1 mile of nearest Elem and JHS , and 1.5 Mile of HS , walked to school .