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DCPS superintendent gives school bus companies an A- grade on 1st day

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — You saw them everywhere on your drive today: school buses.

Hundreds of them were on the roads, making sure your kids got to and from school on their first day.

Action News Jax reporter Courtney Cole spoke to the superintendent of schools about their first day on the roads ... and looked into what each bus company did to make sure the buses were safe.

More than 129,000 students went back to school in Duval County today.

Some of them boarded the bus to get to their first day of class.

Student Transportation of America, Durham School Services and First Student all share the responsibility of getting your students to and from school, safely.

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Cole talked to some parents about the changes they'd like to see made to the school buses.

"Upgrade the buses, have air conditioning, have cameras on every bus," Robin Herring said.

"I'm not sure if they have cameras in the buses. Also the lights, the flashes, making sure that traffic stops when it's supposed to," Christopher German told Cole.

Last week, Cole reached out to all three bus companies to learn how they prepared for the big day.

  • Student Transportation of America wouldn't go into detail about how they prepared, but reassured Cole that the 500 buses they have in Jacksonville receive regular maintenance.
  • Durham School Services said their preventive maintenance program insures all 221 of their buses are always "safe and serviceable" every day.
  • After three e-mails to First Student school bus services, Cole still has not received a response.

But Cole did get a chance to talk to Dr. Diana Greene, the superintendent of schools in Duval County, about how she thinks they performed on the first day.

"We're going to give them an A-," Dr. Greene said.

Dr. Greene said it wasn't an A+, because they did have to deal with one hiccup today.

"We're just so thrilled to know we ran over 900 schools buses and got everyone to school," Dr. Greene said.

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