Public transit commute sheds light on suspended school bus routes

When parent complaints and questions began pouring into state Rep. Trish La Chica’s office about the state suspending bus routes at 14 Hawaii public schools two weeks before school started, she says she felt frustrated that she had few immediate answers or solutions to offer.

So as part of her own research, La Chica (D, Waipio-­Mililani) put on her walking shoes and caught the Honolulu city bus from Koa Ridge to Pearl City High School, conducting her own test of the public transportation the state has recommended for the 1,400-plus students on the school bus routes suspended on Oahu and Kauai due to a chronic shortage of bus drivers.

La Chica found it took over 1-1/2 hours to traverse the 8 miles from Koa Ridge to Pearl City High. And even though she started walking from Koa Ridge to the nearest bus stop at 6:30 a.m. Friday, she arrived on campus at a time that would mean a tardy mark for a student: 11 minutes after the 8 a.m. bell to start classes. She made a video documenting her excursion and distributed the link in her constituent newsletter.

“I wanted to experience that (alternative transportation) for myself, and I did find that it wasn’t reliable,” La Chica told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “I just empathize with a lot of the parents that they really should have been given more time to prepare for this.”

Her experiment shed light on the difficulties and frustrations that many of the hundreds of students and families are encountering since full or partial suspensions of bus routes at 10 Oahu high schools and four Kauai schools were announced by the Department of Education on July 24, two weeks before the new school year launched for public school students Monday.

La Chica is inviting Koa Ridge and Waipio Gentry families to participate in a virtual “community talk story” at 6 p.m. Thursday.

La Chica’s event coincides the same day with a state Board of Education committee meeting where state Schools Superintendent Keith Hayashi is scheduled to give an update on DOE’s response to the chronic shortage of bus drivers, a problem that has plagued schools across the islands and nationwide, and worsened with the COVID-19 pandemic.

High school students who live in the Koa Ridge development, which is in La Chica’s state House district, have been assigned to attend Pearl City High School, she said, because while Mililani High School is closer at about 3 miles away, that campus is considered full.

La Chica said the main challenge for students trying to ride TheBus from Koa Ridge to Pearl City High is a lack of near-site bus stops on both ends of the commute.

She said she and her staff consulted online maps to determine the quickest route. But while Koa Ridge has 500 homes so far, she said the nearest bus stop along Kamehameha Highway is a mile away on foot.

She caught a bus to the Acacia Road bus stop in Pearl City and waited 26 minutes to transfer to a bus that would take her up to the school at the top of Waimano Home Road.

There once was a bus stop at the edge of campus, but it was eliminated over the summer, La Chica said. So the final drop-off was half a mile below the school.

All the walking added about 40 minutes to the travel time, she said.

“This is unacceptable and our kids deserve better options to get to school safely and on time,” she said.

Pearl City Neighborhood Board Chair Larry Veray said he also is frustrated at the shortage of effective immediate solutions for what he regards as an “emergency priority situation,” with more than 200 Pearl City High students who used school buses now displaced.

He also thinks the state ought to pull together money to entice retired drivers to return at least temporarily.

Veray has appealed to the city to revise bus routes to bring them closer to Pearl City High. But Honolulu City Council member Val Okimoto said in an emailed letter to Veray that resident complaints about student noise, trash and vandalism led to prior removal of some bus stops in the area, so that issue is at an impasse.

“I find it very concerning that DOE’s School Transportation Services Branch made their announcement only weeks before the start of the school year,” Okimoto said to Veray. “I find it even more concerning that STSB has likely known about this issue for months and someone at DOE made a conscious decision to cut service mainly to Leeward District schools.”

Officials with Pearl City High and the city did not immediately respond to a Star-Advertiser request for comment Tuesday.

DOE emphasizes that it is working with its bus contractors to get more drivers hired.

Efforts continue “to help recruit and retain drivers and restore suspended routes as quickly as possible,” Nanea Kalani, DOE communications director, said Tuesday via email. “Bus service contractors are continuing to offer and expand hiring bonuses, pay incentives — including daily incentives — and increased benefits, and some contractors have offered to deploy buses and personnel to neighbor islands to assist.”

Information on employment is available at bit.ly/HI DOEschoolbuscontractors.

Students at affected high schools are being encouraged to use the EXPRESS program, a state-county partnership that provides free bus passes to high school students. Information can be found at bit.ly/HIDOE-EXPRESS-FAQ.

“For this week’s grace period (through Friday), bus drivers should be accepting HIDOE high school student IDs, which are integrated with a HOLO card for this school year, even if it’s not yet activated,” Kalani said. “Students who have not yet received their HOLO student ID may show a school-issued picture ID from the last school year to the bus driver.”

If students experience any issues riding the bus, they should email details to stsb@k12.hi.us, with the date, time, route and bus stop location where the issue occurred, she said.

The online application for EXPRESS and to activate HOLO student IDs for Oahu high school students is open until April 1 at iportal.k12.hi.us/EXPRESS.

GET INVOLVED

Public meetings on school bus route suspensions:

>> A presentation on student transportation for the 2023-24 school year is on the agenda for the state Board of Education’s Finance and Infrastructure Committee meeting at 9 a.m. Thursday at the Queen Liliuokalani Building, 1390 Miller St., Room 404. Register to watch via webex at 808ne.ws/3Qus6Es

>> A virtual community meeting on Pearl City High School bus service cancellation, hosted by state Rep. Trish La Chica for Koa Ridge and Waipio Gentry families, will be held from 6 to 7 p.m. Thursday. Register to receive the link to the Zoom meeting at 808ne.ws/3qtkirR

SCHOOL BUS RIDERSHIP

Numbers of students affected by school bus routes suspended by the state Department of Education due to driver shortage, based on ridership in 2022-2023 school year:

Oahu

>> Aiea High: 139

>> Campbell High: 135

>> Castle High: 60

>> Kailua High: 25

>> Kapolei High: 216

>> Mililani High: 34

>> Nanakuli High & Intermediate (only high school routes): 64

>> Pearl City High: 204

>> Waianae High: 167

>> Waipahu High: 115

Oahu total: 1,159

Kauai

>> Kapaa High: 40

>> Kapaa Middle: 81

>> Kapaa Elementary: 76

>> Hanalei Elementary: 51

Kauai total: 248

Source: State Department of Education