CEO: Transportation will be ready by school's start

August 2, 2016 at 8:05p.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

City school buses will deliver children safely to their respective schools and back home despite an Ohio Department of Education report scolding the district for its transportation department.

At a school board work session Tuesday, member Jackie Adair expressed annoyance that she didn’t learn about an ODE report on the city schools’ transportation problems until she read it in The Vindicator Sunday.

The report lists numerous shortcomings including incomplete driver and vehicle maintenance records, nonexistent vehicle repair records and no documentation of required bus driver training drivers.

“Why did I, as a board member, have to learn about it in The Vindicator?” Adair said.

CEO Krish Mohip said he did inform the board about the problems during an executive session.

Adair, though, said the extent of the problems wasn’t conveyed.

Mohip said the state is working with the district to ensure the buses and drivers are ready for the start of the school year.

“I don’t need buses to be ready just for inspection day,” he said. “I need our buses to be safe 365 days a year.”

Mohip said he’s not interested in blaming someone — that can occur in an executive session with the board.

“I’m disappointed,” he said. “This can never happen again.”