The Stillwater Area Public School District has sued Metropolitan Transportation Network for an alleged breach of contract, saying that the school-bus company has failed to provide agreed-upon busing services.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in Washington County District Court in Stillwater, alleges Metropolitan Transportation Network has informed district officials that they plan to further breach the contract by not providing service to 21.5 bus routes starting Tuesday.
“Metropolitan’s anticipatory breach will leave 23 percent of the district’s bus routes not covered, affecting 3,950 students,” the complaint states.
Stillwater also is seeking a temporary injunction against Metropolitan Transportation Network.
Superintendent Malinda Lansfeldt said Saturday that district officials are working over the weekend and expect to have more information to share on Monday.
“We know this puts an undue burden on our families, and we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience,” she said in prepared statement provided to the Pioneer Press. “We know how important it is to have safe and reliable transportation for our students, and we will do all we can to resolve these issues in a timely fashion.”
A shortage of school-bus drivers means some buses in the district have been running up to an hour late.
In a letter to families sent Friday, Lansfeldt wrote that district officials had been told that the bus company had been unable to find drivers for many bus routes.
“This means that many Stillwater Area Public School students, as well as a number of charter and non-public school students, will be without transportation starting on Tuesday,” she wrote. “This significant driver shortage also means substitute drivers are unavailable, which could potentially impact other bus routes. This could result in delays in busing or additional route cancelations.”
Families have been asked to find alternative transportation.
Sarah Van Niewaal has two children who attend Brookview Elementary School. She was taken aback by the district’s announcement of the bus routes being canceled.
“I know they were probably hoping that there could be a last-minute solution and they wouldn’t have had to take the steps of canceling it, and they had communicated earlier that things were going to be rocky, but I really did not expect it to be 20 bus routes getting cut,” Van Niewaal said. “I don’t have enough flexibility where I could just take off for 45 minutes. Neither does my husband and his job.”
Another parent, Kristina Langevin-Beek, said that buses were late during the first week of school for her four kids, who attend Stillwater Area High School, Oak-Land Middle School and Lake Elmo Elementary.
“The first week of busing was really rough. Our bus routes were 45 minutes to an hour late with no notifications,” she said. “So we were a little concerned just given how far the first week went for older kids and kind of questioning how it was all going to shake out and then to get that notification on Friday, it really just threw us for a loop. Frankly, I don’t know what we’re going to do.”
The announcement has caused a great deal of stress, Langevin-Beek said.
“I think I was really frustrated with the email because it was pretty much just like, ‘Here’s a pile of poop, parents. You deal with it.’ I get that there are contract issues with the busing company. I totally understand. But I also feel like it’s the administration’s responsibility to make sure our kids get to school safely. And they pretty much just said, ‘Sorry, we can’t help you,’ ” she said.
Leslie Geisser Mann, a parent of two sixth-graders who attend Oak-Land Middle School, said her kids won’t have bus service coming home from school.
Upon finding out, Geisser Mann posted on NextDoor to see if anyone was interested in carpooling or if others needed help.
“I have the flexibility. If I had to go into work, I would not have that flexibility, so I can see why some parents would be kind of up in arms about it. I completely support that,” she said.
Geisser Mann said this situation may have been prevented if the district didn’t change bus companies.
“I think if the district really wants to keep the calm, they might check out and see what they could do to maybe either break the contract or hire other buses outside,” she said.
In May 2020, a consultant recommended that the district choose Minnesota Central School Bus. Despite the recommendation, four board members voted to change the busing company to Metropolitan Transportation Network (MTN), which was approximately $26,000 less costly per year than the others, according to the consultant.
The district entered into a contract with MTN in June 2020 to provide bus services for the district until June 2024.
On April 29, district officials sent the bus company a notice alleging “eight specific willful violations of the agreement,” according to the complaint. Among them: running routes late on a daily basis; failing to hire sufficient staff, including drivers, mechanics and office staff; failing to respond to telephone calls for bus services in a timely manner; and failing to provide charter bus services and bus services for extracurricular and athletic events.
Other issues with the company were detailed in a July 7 letter. According to that letter, Metropolitan failed to provide service charter routes on May 10; the company combined one or more routes on May 20 and May 26; and on every day from May 10-27, “at least one mechanic, dispatcher and/or other ‘non-driving staff positions’ drove a bus route, rather than being in the office as required,” the complaint states.
Officials from Metropolitan Transportation Network, based in Fridley, could not immediately be reached for comment.