Drivers, parents urge McKeesport Area SD to restore bus monitors after repeated safety incidents

At the March 13 McKeesport Area School District board meeting, multiple bus drivers and parents urged the board and administration to restore and expand bus monitors after repeated on-bus safety incidents.

Bus drivers recounted episodes of fighting, threats, spitting, and objects thrown at drivers, and said those behaviors made it difficult to keep their eyes on the road. “I have been spat on… I have been accused of all kinds of foul things,” said Sydney Walker, who identified herself as a school bus driver. Walker asked the board to ride a morning run and see the conditions firsthand. Another speaker, who also identified as a bus driver and parent, said a first grader punched a driver and had to be removed from the bus by police earlier in the school year and that monitors assigned after that incident lasted only two weeks before being removed due to budget cuts.

Board members and staff described current practices and short- and long-term responses. The district said it had allocated a limited number of bus monitors and that principals sometimes reassign those monitors to elementary routes where needs spike. A district representative said monitors are paid at a contractual rate for the full hour in the morning and full hour in the afternoon and estimated a monitor’s cost to the district at roughly $50 per day (district-provided figure given during the meeting). The board discussed immediately attempting to place more monitors on afternoon routes, which drivers identified as the worst part of the day for misbehavior.

Board members also said there is an existing process schools may use when a student’s behavior constitutes a danger to others on the bus, including the ability to deny transportation after following that process. The board acknowledged the problem predates the current administration and said staffing the monitors is challenging because district and contractor driver shortages remain an issue.

Several drivers and commenters suggested longer-term fixes such as reexamining boundary lines and route assignments so younger students are not on buses for extended periods. A board member said a districtwide review of school assignments and routing would be a longer-term undertaking; in the short term, the district will attempt to put monitors on higher-need routes.

District staff described incident reporting steps: drivers document incidents, schools request video from buses when needed, and schools follow up with families. Drivers said in many cases parents do not respond to school outreach, which frustrates attempts to correct behavior.

The board said staff — including the superintendent and operations team — will continue to work on immediate monitor placements and longer-term districting and routing review. No formal board motion or change to district policy was adopted during the public comment portion; the district signaled it would continue to seek hires for monitor positions and work with transportation contractors to prioritize safety.