BUDA, Texas — Hays CISD is adding more school bus routes after kids had to crowd onto buses the first few days of school.
A mom of a Hays High School student sent KVUE a picture of students she said were standing in the aisle of the school bus Wednesday morning.
Dawn Ames said she told her son to take the photo because the bus was overcrowded since Monday, which was the first day of school. She said the bus to Hays High School had far fewer students last year.
“We charge our schools and the transportation to take care of our kids,” said Ames. “We don't have our kids sitting in a car on the floorboard. That's illegal. They have to be in seatbelts. We don't let airplanes take off with people in the aisle. You can't do that."
Hays CISD apologizes that the bus was that full, especially because it is a safety hazard. The district said it underestimated how many kids ride the bus.
In a statement, Superintendent Eric Wright said: “The method we used to calculate the number of eligible bus riders who would actually ride our buses proved incorrect. So, in some cases, we have had more students on routes than can safely fit in the buses. This stops today.”
Hays CISD also cut 17 bus routes this year.
"We've had some problems with our transportation the first couple days of this school year,” said Tim Savoy, spokesperson for the district. “We have not delivered the type of service that we expect of ourselves and so for that we apologize to our parents. We're sorry for that and we're going to fix it.”
The district cut routes this year because it wanted to avoid a bus driver shortage, like it had last year. It had a shortage of 50 drivers.
Because of this overcrowding, the district said it will add at least eight more routes in the next couple weeks.
Hays CISD adds it has instated a new rule that a school bus cannot leave with kids sitting in the aisle. If that is the case, another bus will have to pick up those children.