SPOKANE, Wash. — As the second week of school starts across Spokane Public Schools (SPS), there is already a handful of busing issues that parents and students are speaking out on involving SPS’s new school bus operator, Zum.
“Every day there is some new thing that we’re dealing with, with the busing system,” MacKenzie Koppa said.
MacKenzie Koppa is a single mom of three kids, who she has raised in Spokane. Since they started going to school, they have been in the SPS District. All these years, Koppa said she and her family have gone through many changes, specifically when it comes to the school bus system.
Durham has been SPS’s provider for 15 years. Overall, most people would tell you they’ve been pretty solid. But there have been issues, which is why SPS began looking into another school bus operator last year.
They landed on Zum, a California based company that promised to streamline much of the SPS transportation process.
Among Zum’s selling points, an app that allows parents and guardians to more easily track their kids, new vehicles in the fleet than Durham had, and the potential to bring electric and low-emission buses on board.
However, what is promised and what’s practical are two different things.
Koppa’s oldest son is in high school, so he drives himself to class, but it’s her two daughters, eight and 11 years old, that worries Koppa.
“My daughter is picked up 20 minutes earlier than she was last year, which has actually led to her being dropped off to the school 25 minutes before school even starts when they don’t have supervision at the school,” she said.
Koppa said this leaves her youngest daughter, who attends Finch Elementary School, possibly alone on the playground for 10 minutes or longer. When Durham was SPS’s provider, Koppa said she never ran into issues like this; yet, with Zum, it’s a different story.
“And I know that the school is trying to make allowances and figure things out, but I don’t think it should have to be their responsibility,” Koppa said. “Zum should be making schedules that actually work for the kids’ safety, that’s their job.”
In a statement to KHQ, a spokesperson for Zum said they believe the company is doing their job quite well here in Spokane.
“Getting kids to and from school safely and reliably is our number one priority. Zum’s routes in Spokane have been performing well since the start of the school year, with on-time performance and 100% route coverage,” said a Zum spokesperson.
SPS Transportation Supervisor Corey Arkle said SPS and Zum have daily meetings to go over any kinks that need to be straightened out across the district’s bus routes. And those kinks are in a higher volume at the beginning of the school year, simply due to a higher volume in students registered for the busing system.
“Every school year at the beginning we plan the routes out, and we really try to plan it out on registrations and what we expect,” Arkle said.
Just two weeks into the school year, there are roughly 6,000 students registered to ride the bus. As for the bus driver shortage, Arkle said SPS is in a better spot than they were last year but are still low compared to driver numbers pre-pandemic; the district has gone from an average of about 175 school bus drivers to around 140 drivers.
SPS said while 140 drivers are enough to cover the routes they are servicing, this number leaves little room for contingencies such as sick leave, vacations, etc.
“I understand that there are kinks and things they have to work through, but it just seems like even the initial organization of everything could have been a lot smoother,” Koppa said. “There are oversights that Zum is making, just as far as safety concerns.”
On top of her youngest allegedly being dropped off too early, Koppa said her older daughter who attends the Libby Center faces the risk of not catching the right bus home.
When Durham was SPS’s bus operator, Koppa said it was no problem for her older daughter to ride the Libby bus to Finch, then get on the Finch bus to ride home with her younger sister. Now, she said the Libby bus arrives at Finch at the same time Finch is leaving, which means her daughters may not be able to go home together.
And, being a single mom, Koppa said this leaves her scrambling to make sure both of them get home safely; but she cannot be in two places at once.
“I want them to be together,” Koppa said. “None of it makes any sense, and it’s not safe.”
In response to parents not knowing when their kids’ bus will arrive, Arkle said he recommends all parents with children registered in the bus system to download the Zum app, which gives them live updates on where the school bus is and its ETA.
