The start of the school year is always a little bumpy, but for those who ride the school bus, it may be a little more than that. And with more than double the number of buses since last year, this is almost expected.

In particular, Buses R805 and R807 are consistently late by a significant amount of time.

According to freshman Klaw Meh, who rides R807, the bus is usually about 20 minutes late. “The bus is supposed to get there at 7:36, but it usually comes around 7:50.”

It’s not only those two buses that are having issues. Bus R801, for example, is consistently late to school, according to Aceneth Sarabia, who rides the bus. But due to it only being late by about five minutes on the average day, it slipped under the office’s radar.

These problems can be linked to issues at District Transportation. According to an employee at District 6 Transportation who wished to remain anonymous, they’re short approximately 10 drivers. “We’re short drivers. We have all office staff driving, and we’re covering some routes that don’t have consistent drivers at this time,” the employee said.

The employee stated that the district is working on finding alternate routes that avoid the congested 35th Avenue. “Once we get to Greeley West, there is a huge amount of traffic which holds up 35th Avenue. We’re trying to find alternate routes to get in and get on time… If we could find a way around traffic that would put us at school on time and the children’s education would not be affected,” stated the employee.

The students are also an important factor to consider when looking at delays.  The system is  built on kids showing up to their stops on time and with their IDs. But as the employee pointed out,  “[We pick up high schoolers] if they’re at their stop on time and if they have their badges to scan on the bus. If they don’t, we have to manually put them in the system, which makes us run late.”