San Benito High School officials are seeking reimbursement for the more than $18,000Â cost of transporting 350 senior students and chaperones to Disneyland on district school buses after the company that was supposed to provide transportation two days before the May 29 trip. The trip still occurred, but repeated breakdowns of the non-air conditioned buses caused the students to show up six hours late to the annual end-of-year celebration.
Principal Todd Dearden said any money received by the district from U.S. Coachways “will, of course, be distributed back to the students who went on the trip.” He also said that he has notified “various ‘watchdog’ organizations that have also been dealing with” the company. “Stories are surfacing about a number of schools who experienced the same issues, or worse,” such as Rio Americana High School, which had to cancel its trip entirely.
In a letter to David Allison, the account manager for U.S. Coachways, school district attorney Loren Carjulia said Dearden was “shocked” when he received news on Wednesday afternoon that the bus company would not be able to fulfill the contract, which called for it to provide 7 buses to transport students early Friday morning. The school paid a $25,559.63 deposit for the trip, which was reimbursed to the district after the trip occurred.
Students and parents were upset by the change in plans, delays in getting to Anaheim and the repeated breakdowns in 90-degree heat. Fifty five students from one of the broken-down buses were divided among the remaining buses, meaning students had to sit three-across on bench-style seats in Los Angeles stop-and-go traffic.
“Parents were scared and angry about the situation,” Carjulia says in the letter. “Mr. Dearden sent received over 400 text messages and phone calls throughout the evening. The District and school site received even more.”
Some parents drove or flew down to Los Angeles to bring their children back to Hollister, rather than have them ride on school buses on the return trip. “This incident resulted in significant lack of trust expressed by parents toward the high school,” Carjulia wrote. “Superintendent John Perales spend $1,200 on McDonald’s cheeseburgers, which were hot and ready for students upon their return, as a means of recognition that the students had been through a difficult idea.”
After finding out about the cancelation, Dearden and the school’s transportation manager scrambled to find alternative means of transportation for students, including “every coach company in Northern California,” according to officials. They also called Amtrak, Southwest Airlines and other transportation companies, but none could help on such short notice. Instead of canceling the trip, the district used its own school buses and drivers along with a bus and driver from Spring Grove School District to make the trip happen.
“The trip was much less successful than anticipated and many students and parents remain frustrated and angry about the breach of contract,” the district’s attorney wrote in the June 25 letter to U.S. Coachways. “This community, school administration, students, and parents are all appalled at your company’s business practices and wish to take further legal or other actions against U.S. Coachways to ensure your company’s shoddy business practices are publicly exposed.”
While the district did receive a refund of its deposit, Carjulia said “that is insufficient to compensate for the outrageous and callous manner in which you treated the District.”
The district has given the company 10 business days to respond to the compensation request.
“U.S. Coachways needs to be held accountable for taking away what is a ‘rite of passage’ for these seniors and instead making it a lasting, negative experience,” Carjulia wrote.