Wednesday was the first day of school for many Bethel students. And it was the first day for the Lower Kuskokwim School District to put its plans to get kids to school into effect after it cut ties with longtime bus contractor, Golden Eagle Unlimited.
There was a traffic jam on Chief Eddie Hoffman Highway leading to Ayaprun Elitnaurvik.
Brian Lefferts, one of the parents taking their kids to school, said that the traffic line is usually a little bit long during school periods. But this time, it's "backed up farther than it’s usually is," Lefferts said.
"I think it’s probably because more parents are dropping off their kids because the buses aren’t running," Lefferts added.
Chris Carmicahel, principal of Gladys Jung Elementary School, acknowledged the chaos Monday morning, but said it was not out of control.
"It looks a little disorganized at the moment, but it was going to be until we got a system in place that’s reasonable," Carmichael said.
For the return home, by way of cabs and buses, the schools grouped the kids together by "geographical location in town and by parent need," Carmichael added.
This situation developed earlier this month, when the school district announced that there would be no bus service for August and September. Instead, the district would pick up kids with their current fleet of three buses, reimburse the parents for transportation, or give them cab vouchers. But it was unclear which cab company would be taking the kids to school until 36 hours before school started. Naim Shabani, owner of Kusko Cab, said that he cut short his vacation to work out a deal with LKSD.
"We pretty much averaged out the portion of the town to replace certain bus routes," he said.
Shabani says that 26 cabs were used on Wednesday, but he says that the increase in cabs wasn’t to blame for traffic.
"[It was likely] the increased amount of parents that took their kids to school when previously they were not," Shabani said.
Bethel Police Department Chief Burke Waldron says that Wednesday morning went a lot smoother than anticipated.
"We had concerns that there would be issues there, so I held one of my night-shift officers over to work overtime, and we didn’t receive a single complaint, to my knowledge," Waldron said.
Carmichael and other school officials expect that the mayhem will ease once parents figure out the new system. This situation will be the norm for the next few weeks, until the new school buses arrive in October.