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Parent tells board bus driver errors and app failures threaten student safety, asks for refunds on activity fees
Summary
A parent told the board a bus driver repeatedly disciplined her son despite video evidence to the contrary, said the Chipmunk bus-tracking app does not work reliably, and asked the district about refunds for activity fees withheld when students are barred from events.
Sheila Torres, a parent who addressed the board during presentations from the audience, urged greater accountability and transparency on transportation issues and said the district’s Chipmunk bus-tracking app has not worked reliably for families.
Torres said her son was disciplined multiple times by the same bus driver for behavior she disputes and offered to provide video footage that she said would show the driver’s account was false. "The excuse that the bus driver is giving is that the kids is walking from the back of the bus. That's a lie," Torres said, describing the morning routes and stop times in her neighborhood.
Torres also raised a separate concern about activity fees: when students are barred from events, parents receive no refund. "Where are these funds going?" she asked, noting the cumulative impact if many families are affected.
District union representative Diana Bowes (CESPA president) later acknowledged the Chipmunk system has been a source of frustration for drivers and parents, said the transportation team and IT are working on it, and asked the board to consider driver requests such as the perfect-attendance reconsideration in the case of Alicia Fox, a bus driver who missed roughly 45 minutes due to an emergency.
The chair indicated the district would look into the specific video evidence offered by Torres. No formal policy change or vote on refunds occurred at the meeting.
