Muncie Community Schools Closes For Second Day To Fix Bus Routes

Muncie Community Schools will cancel classes Friday for a second day in a row over busing problems that arose on its first day of the school year Wednesday.  IPR’s Stephanie Wiechmann reports.

At a press conference this afternoon, district officials said the bus routes from new busing company Auxilio Services weren’t “redone as they should have been.”

Steve Wittenauer owns Administrator Assistance, the emergency management company running MCS. When asked who’s to blame for the problems –

“I think there’s probably blame to go around without naming specific individuals or entities.”

Wittenauer says the problems were unacceptable and he thinks the district’s bus routes will be ready for Monday.

On the first day of school Wednesday, buses ran late, drove by students at bus stops without stopping, and some never showed up at all.  This is Auxilo’s first year running transportation for Muncie schools, after its winning contract last year promised to save the financially-impaired corporation more than $1 million a year by running fewer bus routes and staggering start times at schools.

MCS posted a statement on its website.