HOUSTON – Three days into the new school year, parents of Houston Independent School District magnet students who ride the bus say a new hub system isn't working.
Complaints include long waits for pickups from the hub locations, causing missed classroom time and late drop-offs after school.
"They said the hub was supposed to improve an already struggling transportation system but it only made it worse," said parent Travis McGee, who drops his twins off at the Bastian Elementary School hub.
"There were over 100 kids there. It's not safe and it's not smart, it's another failed experiment," McGee said.
HISD's 25,000 magnet school bus riders are now assigned to one of 46 hub locations throughout the district. Buses pick them up, take them to their magnet school, then drop them off at the hub at the end of the day.
The district announced the program in July saying in a blog post it would mean
"...improving the on-time arrival rate of students, which will prevent lost instruction time by ensuring they are at school ready to learn when the first school bell rings."
But parents say the buses are getting to hubs late, making students late for class.
"She missed an hour and a half, two hours of school," said Lisa Proctor, who drops her daughter off at the Pershing Middle School hub.
Proctor tells Channel 2 her daughter didn't arrive back at the hub until nearly 8:30 p.m Tuesday after being on the bus since 4 p.m.
HISD's general manager of transportation, Tim Brown, acknowledges there are problems.
"We apologize, we do realize that we are running into some challenges. I think the major issues would be tweaks we're having to make from going into a new software system and some of the times built into those routes," Brown said.
HISD transportation officials are asking parents to bear with them as they work to improve processes and address all of the issues.