Waukegan school officials: 'We did our job' Buses thaw, 16,000 kids back in school
WAUKEGAN -- More than 16,000 Waukegan public school students are scheduled to return to classes today after an unexpected break due to frozen school bus engines.
Youngsters around the city were left standing at bus stops in sub-zero temperatures Monday morning unaware that bus service had been canceled by First Student, the district's bus company.
(Marina Samovsky/News-Sun)
(Michael Schmidt/News-Sun)
While the district opened buildings for those students who could either walk or get rides, 54 percent of its enrollment of 16,200 stayed home. School was called off for Tuesday after officials learned that buses still hadn't been thawed.
"We have crews out now working to get them started," an employee of First Student said Tuesday. The company has offered no specific reason why approximately 130 buses failed to start early Monday. The 80 buses that did start were sent to schools in North Chicago and Lake Forest.
Waukegan Superintendent Donaldo Batiste said Tuesday the district can't be blamed for the problem.
"We did our job, which is to be responsible for the children who are entrusted to us," he said. "We received a call too late to be able to close our doors (Monday) and to feel good about that decision.
"Many of our children's parents work and leave home before 5 a.m. in the morning," he added. "We didn't want to leave children unsupervised. We provided meals, a safe haven and kept them the entire length of the school day."
Batiste said the fact that so many students were left waiting in such cold weather was unfortunate.
"It's not something we take lightly," he said. "Things could have been done differently by the people who are providing transportation to our children."
Waukegan District 60 paid $7.4 million to First Student last year and is in the third year of a three-year contract, which could be extended to five years, according to district Business Manager Brian Luosa.
"We're looking at other options," Batiste said.
First Student has had a lock on the district's business because it is the only one with a fleet large enough to accommodate Waukegan's burgeoning school population, officials say.
The bus freeze-out was a first for Waukegan, noted School Board member Anita Hanna, who said the lack of service was a shock to parents who have been conditioned by the fact that school in District 60 goes on in all but blizzard circumstances -- though the district did call a rare snow day earlier this winter.
"This is Waukegan and we don't generally close the schools," Hanna said. "For the amount of money we're paying them (First Student), neither the children nor the school district should be subjected to this."
Donna Winfrey, who has two children in the district, said parents should use their own judgment and stay informed.
"I have been known to not send my kids to school because it was too darn cold for them to stand waiting for a bus even when school was open and the buses were running," she said.
Winfrey said she saw both elementary and high school students waiting at bus stops on Tuesday -- despite the cancellation.
"Who is responsible for this communication breakdown?" she asked.
Winfrey suggested that many families in the district do not have access to the Internet and said parents need to remember to check TV and radio stations for closing information. She also suggested more schools should leave telephone recordings informing parents of emergency closures.
But Waukegan wasn't the only district where classrooms were emptied by the cold.
School was closed Tuesday to nearly 7,000 students at Woodland Middle School, where the cold caused sprinkler heads to burst in the school's Learning Resource Center at 3:30 p.m. Monday -- causing flooding in the resource center, the health center and the school's main office. Students and staff were evacuated for about five minutes until the Gurnee Fire Department arrived. Cleanup continued Tuesday, and school is expected to resume today.
Lake Zurich Community Unit School District 95 also closed Monday and Tuesday after school buses failed to operate properly and three school buildings experienced heating problems. Buses were expected to be running today with the delivery of "a special fuel mixture" better able to handle extreme temperatures, according to Jim Jennings, the district's communications director.
All school days missed due to inclement weather are typically tacked on after the last scheduled day of school before summer break. To date, Waukegan will add two, Lake Zurich three and Woodland one.