District hears First Student update amid parent complaints about late routes and a bus accident

Representatives from First Student told the Southfield school board the company has largely staffed routes for the school year, is near a tentative union contract ratification and is working with the district on an electric bus pilot — but parents at the meeting said chronic lateness and a recent bus accident left them frustrated and fearful.

First Student introduced Benjamin Newsom and said the contractor currently operates 57 routes with approximately 65 full-time drivers, and reported a 95% on-time arrival rate across all routes so far this year. Company representatives described a multi-step training program that includes 15 hours of classroom time, skills training, on-road hours and six hours of special-needs training before drivers take the state test.

Newsom also said First Student and district partners completed an engineering walk-through for an electric vehicle bus and expected the vehicle to arrive in the coming months; DTE was scheduled for a follow-up site visit.

Parent concerns and district response During public participation, Khadija Hawkins told the board her Route 22 bus has been late or failed to arrive “multiple times” and cited multiple calls and emails to transportation without satisfactory resolution. Hawkins also said her daughter, a student at Adler Elementary, was in a school bus accident and was later diagnosed with a mild concussion. She said she received no district notice following the incident and that the principal had to call transportation to report the crash.

Board President Ashanti Bland apologized on behalf of the district and said the board was made aware of the accident; she pledged that communications procedures would be reviewed and that the district would follow up directly with the parent. Transportation staff and First Student representatives said they would provide an update to the parent the following day.

First Student said some service problems at the start of the year stemmed from overly tight routing, particularly for special-needs runs that require additional loading and unloading time. Maurice (First Student) said the company reworked routes, added leeway for loading/unloading and has not recently received the high volume of complaint emails that it did in mid-September.

The company also reported a full tentative collective-bargaining agreement with the local union and said the union membership would vote the day after the board meeting.

Midyear school move and route changes Transportation staff described a midyear school split and said they had proposed a collaborative routing plan developed with principals and First Student. Staff said routing information for parents would be available on Dec. 15 and that all walkers and bus riders would be routed so that multiple buses serving the same area would coordinate drop-offs.

Why it matters: Parents rely on consistent bus service for safety and access to school. Board members emphasized that a formal communication must go to families if a bus is involved in an accident and asked transportation staff to improve parent notification.

Next steps and board direction The board asked transportation staff to follow up with the parent who reported the accident and to share a timeline for corrective actions on chronic late routes. First Student said it would continue recruiting and training, and the company and district said they would continue collaborating on the EV project and midyear routing.