Parents and a bus driver press district for clearer communication and safety action after February bus incident

A DeWitt parent and a district bus driver raised safety and communication concerns at the board meeting about an incident on Feb. 27 that left students delayed and distressed.

Parent Amber Covington described receiving minimal notification the day her child’s bus was 30–45 minutes late and said the initial communication she received was vague: "They said there was a student ... everyone's okay," she said, and the lack of detail left parents unprepared to talk with children about what they had witnessed. Covington asked the board to review transportation policies, incident training for drivers and how the district notifies families about delays and emergencies.

Bus driver Dennis Kowalski described the incident from the driver’s perspective and said the disruptive student had been an escalating problem for months despite driver and supervisory warnings. Kowalski said the student resisted seating directions and, within minutes on Feb. 27, the driver heard other students report that a child had been hit in the face. Kowalski said he called for help from school staff, who brought an aid, but that removing the student from the bus was difficult. "It was ugly, and it was avoidable," he told the board. Kowalski urged the district to provide an aide on the bus for the student or to place the child on a different bus; he said he previously raised the matter with supervisors and was told contracting a dedicated transportation provider would be expensive.

After public comment the superintendent addressed communication and safety follow-up. He said the district "remain[s] committed to student safety and clear communication with families" and acknowledged failures in the day’s notifications. The superintendent explained that transportation staff have worked with the technology department to enable campus notifications and said the district would ensure personnel are trained to send timely alerts when buses are delayed. He added that the transportation office must continue follow up with individual phone calls to families after an initial group notification.

Board members asked about notification thresholds and whether the district can reliably notify families for delays of 10–15 minutes; district staff said they would work on training and processes to issue messages and follow-up calls. The board also discussed the bond and pool work in the meeting and staff said the district plans to break the high school package into two bids so the pool work can be bid and scheduled sooner, with the goal of targeting spring break to early summer for pool work.

Ending: The board committed to follow-up on transportation training, notification practices and the specific bus incident; district staff advised parents to expect improved notification protocols and said they will continue case-level follow-up with families and staff.