By Taylor Fleming
PEKIN, Ill. (25 News) – After a chaotic week for Pekin Public Schools District 108, the school board held an emergency meeting Friday to discuss issues with Alltown Bus Service that led to cancelation of school Thursday and Friday.
“There’s still a lot of work to do, especially on Alltown’s part. I will say, we’re very frustrated with them right now,” said Karen Frazier, the school board president.
The first day of school on Wednesday had numerous busing issues, leading the district to cancel school for two days. The first routing information was full of problems, and while there were efforts to correct it, the community felt the errors.
Students who go to Wilson Intermediate School described being left at school for an hour after dismissal.
“There [were] kids starting to cry because they were scared they wouldn’t make it home to their family on time,” said student Kelen Beach. He and his brother also said was no air conditioning.
The district has a five-year, $4.8 million contract with Alltown. No company representatives attended Friday’s meeting.
Superintendent Leonard Ealey said there is someone from the company working to fix problems with bus routes in Pekin, and two others are working remotely.
Bus drivers practiced their routes Friday, and they will continue to do so over the weekend.
“Right now, we’re kind of just trying to get the situation under control and then starting after that, we’re going to start investigating what happened and where the ball was dropped,” Ealey said.
President Frazier believes that an Alltown representative will be at the board’s next meeting in September.
The superintendent said he is “90% confident” that busing will go well next week when school restarts.
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