Union County School District investigates transportation department

UNION COUNTY, N.C. — Union County school district leadership started investigating its transportation department in November, Channel 9 learned Tuesday.

Eyewitness News anchor Liz Foster asked district spokeswoman Tahira Stalberte what that investigation involves, but she could say only that it’s personnel-related.

“Is there any part of the investigation that involves mechanics and the buses themselves?” Foster asked.

"I can’t speak to that at this time," Stalberte said.

A source confirmed to Channel 9 that employees in the district’s transportation office allege that school buses were taken across county lines to avoid inspections and money for maintenance tools is gone, among other issues.

Foster called all nine school board members for comment and didn’t get responses to questions about whether buses are avoiding inspections and money for tools is gone Stalberte also wouldn't comment.

“That’s very concerning,” UCPS parent Joel Johnson said. “My child’s safety is top priority and I want to make sure he’s getting to school safe and home from school safe.”

Johnson has noticed that his son’s bus has been about 30 minutes late recently. That’s because the district faces a school bus driver shortage and is currently seeking to hire 30 more drivers. Many of the district’s 300 drivers are currently doing double routes, which is causing delays in getting children to and from school.

“It is a challenging problem right now,” Stalberte said.

However, Eyewitness News confirmed that the bus driver shortage is not related to the ongoing investigation. No outside agencies are assisting the district in the investigation.

Channel 9 checked records with the state Department of Public Instruction. A state inspector last March randomly looked at 31 UCPS buses, about 10percent of the district’s fleet.

Channel 9 obtained a letter sent to the superintendent that says “a number of defects were identified as needing repair” and three buses had to be taken out of service until repairs were done. The overall inspection score was worse than the previous year.

Foster also asked Stalberte if buses are being used that are beyond their scheduled dates for repairs and inspections, but did not get a direct answer. State law requires school buses to be inspected every 30 days. Stalberte said that is happening in Union County and the district has records of it.

State inspectors have not been back to Union County since last March.

A Union County school bus hose burst and sprayed antifreeze on students last May. Channel 9 did an investigation then and reported that the state warned of an antifreeze leak in buses several years earlier.

The Union County School District is hosting a job fair to hire school bus drivers on from 4 to 7 p.m. May 18 at Weddington High School.

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