First Student school bus service resumes at Greenwich Public Schools today

The development comes after more than 2,000 Greenwich students had no ride to and from school Monday because dozens of bus drivers didn’t show up in support of a worker the school district recently decertified.

Jay Lederman

Apr 17, 2023, 11:42 AM

Updated 542 days ago

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First Student school bus service has resumed at Greenwich Public Schools today, officials say.
School district officials issued a statement Monday night that reads in part:
“We once again apologize for the inconvenience today as First Student continued to resolve an issue that arose from GPS decertifying a driver from transporting our students. We thank you again for your cooperation and patience.”
This comes after more than 2,000 Greenwich students had no ride to and from school Monday because dozens of bus drivers didn’t show up in support of a worker the school district recently decertified.
Jonathan Supranowitz, director of communications and Board of Education liaison for Greenwich Public Schools, says Greenwich was notified by First Student at 5:30 a.m. that bus drivers would not be showing up.
Supranowitz says an email, text, and phone calls were made to parents at 6 a.m. stating buses are not running today and children need to find an alternate way to get to school. The alert came after Supranowitz says the district recently decertified a driver for driving in a “very dangerous manner.”
In a letter to First Student, Greenwich Public Schools said on March 31 – prior to school letting out – the deputy superintendent was driving behind a First Student bus that was heading from North Street School to Parkway School to pick up students. According to the letter, the deputy superintendent observed the bus driver cross the double yellow line more than 15 times. The letter states the driver was also observed straying into the on-coming lane and was not able to see if there were oncoming vehicles when she approached curves.
There were no students on the bus at the time.
Greenwich Public Schools says they contacted First Student after the incident and requested the driver be decertified.
Mary Pryce, a bus driver who has been with the Greenwich public school system for 11 years, says the decertification felt like a personal attack on the bus driver who has been driving for more than 20 years.
Pryce says the union did not issue a strike, but other bus drivers are worried about being followed.
"We take our jobs very seriously and we also appreciate our jobs, and for someone to be decertified as a veteran driver in that way…we are all on the fence about this. We're afraid that we may lose our jobs,” she says.