School District Rides Out a Rough Day

A day after the Orange Unified School District’s private bus contractor suddenly quit, some students returning to school from summer break Wednesday encountered sporadic delays in service, though officials said most of the 4,500 students dependent on bus service got to school on time.

The most serious interruptions caused by the bus company’s withdrawal of service, which it blamed on an insurance contract dispute with the district, occurred in the Anaheim Hills area.

There, about 25 special education students were forced to stay home because they were unable to get transportation to school.

The district, which has about 500 special education students, provided bus service to more than half of its 40 special education routes, and parents drove about 50 special education students to school Wednesday. Because of their disabilities, the students often require specially equipped buses and drivers with special training.

District officials are hoping parents along with six new bus drivers hired Wednesday will get all special education students to school today.

“I saw the district was in trouble, so I thought I would pitch in this morning,” said Jay Dutt, who drove his 14-year-old son to class at the district’s main special education facility, Canyon Hills School in Anaheim Hills. “It was no problem.”

Also, about two dozen Anaheim Hills students were stranded up to 45 minutes because four bus drivers failed to show up for work, according to district administrators. The students were eventually picked up by other drivers who had finished their routes.

The district said it survived the day without major incident because of Tuesday’s emergency hiring of 55 bus drivers for its 71 routes, drivers pulling double-route duty and parents driving many of the district’s special education students to school. The district, which serves Orange, Villa Park and parts of Anaheim Hills, Garden Grove and Santa Ana, is continuing to hire drivers to avert delays.

“All things considered, we did pretty well,” said David Perry, assistant superintendent for business services. “I think we’ve turned the corner and hopefully we’ll be completely stabilized by next week.”

Meanwhile, Board President Martin Jacobson called a special board meeting tonight to review why the contractor--Santa Barbara Transportation Co.--walked off the job Tuesday.

As part of its plan to implement what it calls the “Republican agenda,” the board voted 6 to 1 in December to privatize bus service, the first of several district services a conservative majority on the board wants to remove from government hands.

A leading proponent of privatization in the 27,000-student district, Jacobson said he wants to “salvage”’ the contract with the Goleta-based company, which provides bus services for 11 school districts in California.

After three months of negotiations, Santa Barbara Transportation disbanded bus service Tuesday morning, complaining that the district’s liability insurance policy failed to cover bus drivers against negligence. Company officials said that without the coverage, they couldn’t provide bus transportation.

District officials contend the bus company has similar insurance contracts with other school districts. The real problem, according to Supt. Robert L. French, was that the company only hired a little more than half of the drivers needed to service the district.