Plymouth-Canton Looks to Gain More School Bus Drivers

Complaints about inadequate busing quality for special education students in the Plymouth-Canton district might soon be addressed.

Plymouth-Canton administrators met Friday with Michigan Educational Transportation Services representatives, one of two contracted busing services serving the district with an end goal of having METS take over all the district's routes.

Trinity Transportation handles the district's special education bus routes, while METS handles general routes because METS did not have enough drivers to cover the entire district, said Phil Freeman, assistant superintendent for facilities and operations.

The quality of Trinity's services came into question last week during a school board meeting, where parents accused drivers of inadequate on-bus staffing, getting lost on routes, being late or failing to show up to their proper stops. Trinity officials at the time said they were investigating the claims but declined further comment.

Freeman said Trinity buses still will be in service until METS takes over all the Plymouth-Canton routes, which is expected to happen by Dec. 1. He expects METS to take on about 3-4 routes per week each week from Trinity until METS completely takes over.

"Trinity is going to continue to work with us in any capacity we tell them to," Freeman said.

He said the size of Plymouth-Canton's district, the third-largest school district in Michigan, has been the primary obstacle in getting enough METS drivers.

METS will have a job fair from 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. today to hire bus drivers. The fair will be held at the Plymouth-Canton Community Schools Transportation Department driver's lounge, 1024 S. Mill St. in Plymouth. For more information, call (517) 647-7765.