20 minutes after the bus was supposed to pick her up, junior Louise Marshal said she gave up and had her mom drive her to school.

“I got out to the bus stop a few minutes early. After 10 minutes, I was concerned and after 20 minutes, I went back home because I realized it was going to be too late or it wasn’t coming at all,” Marshall said.

The Park-Adams bus company, which makes up for roughly 75 percent of the schools busses, did not send out its busses March 1, according to assistant principal Jessica Busse.

“Park-Adams had today as a no school day instead of Friday,” Busse said. “We’re working with Park-Adams to figure out (the miscommunication), but they did not run this morning.”

After sophomore Henry Eaton realized his bus hadn’t shown up, he needed to take another means of transport in order to get to school.

“I realized the busses were late when school started,” Eaton said. “I got a ride from a friend, but it took 30 minutes.”

Park utilizes two other bus companies, North Star and MTI, which both ran their busses this morning. According to Busse, the hybrid schedule has resulted in confusion with scheduling.

“There’s a lot (of) days with a lot of calendar changes and we’re just trying to get everything straight,” Busse said. 

Park-Adams sent out busses to pick up the students who were stranded, and their absences will be excused, according to Busse.

“(Students) have all gotten robo-calls letting them know the busses are on their way to pick them up, so they will be picked up and we will address their attendance, or they can sign on online,” Busse said.

According to Eaton, other students on his bus route needed to pay for a car service in order to make it to school.

“Two of them couldn’t get back into their houses, so they ordered a Lyft to get to school.”

Based on the amount of Cohort A students who rode the bus last week, Busse said about 30 kids were impacted by this.

“We don’t have a large bus ridership right now because of COVID,” Busse said. “A lot of kids have opted out of bussing, even those who haven’t opted out are finding other ways to get to school.”