CARY — Wake County School officials continue to assess whether more buses should be added to its routes.

The discussion comes after a bumpy start to the new school year when parents across the county complained about late drop-off times and some situations where buses did not show up at all.

It is day three of the new traditional school year and Wake County parents are still unhappy about major school bus delays. Although parents say the tardiness has shown some signs of improvement since Monday, they say they are disappointed with what they are calling a lack of communication.

It is a delay that's causing headaches for the Cary community.

“Only this year we had this bus problem. We never had this before,” said parent Berja Madinjou.

Some parents say when the buses were late they were not informed about where their kids were or when they would arrive to their designated bus stop.

“School gets out at 3:45 p.m. and she still got home at 5:30 p.m.,” said parent Ann Thorpe.

Wake County School Superintendent Tony Tata said the school system has received about 2,000 calls from parents about the issue.

"If a bus doesn't show, I understand that that's unacceptable," said Tata.
Tata admitted taking 50 buses off the road to maintain efficiency was an ambitious move.

"[It was] to increase our efficiency so that we would get the money from the state next year and to save operational dollars, about $5 Million a year so that we could balance our budget," said Tata.

Transportation crews added four buses back on the road. Two were added to the Apex area, one serving Broughton High Shcool and one for Enloe High Shcool.

Wake County school representatives said some challenges are expected during the first couple weeks of school. They say they are evaluating the situation every day to see if more changes need to be made.