The dispute between Kansas City Public Schools and Daye Transportation continues.
Daye Transportation released a statement through the law firm representing the bus company, saying KCPS didn't provide bus route information in time and added additional routes in the days before school started.
The statement read in part:
“Daye Transportation did not receive school information until August 8, 2016, which was not only extremely late by industry standard but included seven (7) additional routes for Monday August 15, 2016. Rather than abandon a customer, Daye Transportation attempted to help KCPS with additional routes, purchased additional buses, and did not receive the necessary routing information from KCPS until 6 P.M. Friday August 12, 2016.”
KCPS spokeswoman Natalie Allen said routes consistently change before the start of the school year as part of the enrollment process. Allen said that’s not abnormal for a school district, and Daye Transportation came to an agreement with the school for 21 routes.
Allen said Daye’s workload dropped to just 8 routes mid-week when it became clear there were issues, but did not cancel the contract until Daye Transportation buses failed a spot safety inspection conducted by the Missouri Highway Patrol.
Daye Transportation called the Missouri Highway Patrol’s report “grossly inaccurate.”
Bill Lowe with Missouri Highway Patrol said 8 buses were flagged for minor repairs, and another 8 for major violations. Only 3 of the 19 buses fully passed inspection.
In the statement, Daye Transportation said:
“The Missouri Highway Patrol are in error as only three of fifty-three buses were found to temporarily out of service (two for cross arm problems and one for having one safety window problem). None of the buses had any brake problems according the Missouri Department of Transportation.”
The Missouri Highway Patrol did not inspect the full fleet, rather randomly choosing 19 buses to inspect.
Lowe said the Missouri Highway Patrol “stands by the findings of our initial inspection.”
A spokesperson for MoDOT told 41 Action News that MoDOT was not at all part of the inspection process.
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Brian Abel can be reached at brian.abel@kshb.com.
