CRANBERRY TWP — A bus driver shortage within the AJ Myers and Sons company has caused widespread route changes and confusion among parents with children in the St. Kilian Parish School, a problem that has also affected the Seneca Valley School District.

Parents with children attending St. Kilian were notified Tuesday night of changes occurring to their children’s afternoon bus routes, but allegedly were never told by school officials the morning time schedule also had changed.

As a result, an unknown number of children missed the bus to school Wednesday morning because it came 20 minutes earlier than usual.

Summer Fowler of Cranberry Township, who has a 7-year-old and a 5-year-old who ride the bus to St. Kilian, said her husband was forced to drive the children to school Wednesday morning because every student in her neighborhood missed the bus.

According to Fowler, St. Kilian officials sent out a notification Tuesday night saying bus routes had changed and parents could expect a 20-minute delay for the afternoon drop-off.

However, the notification didn’t include any information the morning bus pickup times would be 20 minutes earlier. Fowler said she called the bus company to get answers, which is when officials there told her of the schedule change.

“We were never notified by the school,” she said. “We were told the drop-off times in the afternoon would change. We were never told that the pickup times in the morning would be 20 minutes earlier. All of the kids were out at their stops, but the bus had already come by.”

Fowler said the morning pickup time was originally at 7:54 a.m., which was problematic because students weren’t getting to school until about an hour later, well after the 8:25 a.m. start time.

She is glad the time was changed in the morning to 7:34 a.m. However, she’s not happy nobody told the parents.

“This is a galactic mess,” she said. “St. Kilian is blaming this mix-up on the new (Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic) high school, but that school hasn’t even opened yet. The fact of the matter is we have had years to plan for this. It is inexcusable.”

In the notification sent from St. Kilian, school officials blamed an “emergency shortage” of bus drivers for causing the upheaval in routes.

In talking to officials from the bus company Wednesday morning, Fowler said an employee there told her a bus driver had called into the station to report he was driving his route, but that no students were out to catch the bus.

To make matters worse, Fowler said she asked someone at St. Kilian if there would be any changes in the morning, and she never got an answer.

“I specifically asked that question,” she said. “There’s been a huge communication breakdown somewhere along the chain. The fact of the matter is they need to fix it. We’re all taxpayers, and we entrust and pay you to make sure this doesn’t happen.”

As part of state law, the Seneca Valley School District is responsible for transporting students in the district to the school of their choice.

Seneca Valley uses AJ Myers for its own students, and also uses that bus company to take other students to the private schools.

In the e-mail sent from St. Kilian officials to parents Tuesday night, school officials said they were contacted by Seneca Valley Superintendent Tracy Vitale and told about the emergency bus driver shortage.

“We apologize for this adjustment but this is something we must do to meet the pickup needs of all of our students,” the e-mail said. “The bus company assures us that they continue to recruit and train drivers with the hopes that the routes will return to their original time. We are assisting them in this effort.”

Linda Andreassi, director of communications for Seneca Valley, said more than 350 students at Haine Elementary in Cranberry Township also experienced route changes.

She said AJ Myers officials contacted school officials Tuesday night and said that because of a driver shortage the routes would change.

According to Andreassi, drivers are now picking up and dropping off students, then going back out and picking up another load of students to take them to school.

Or, as Andreassi put it, the bus company consolidated 10 bus routes into five, which is why the drivers must pull double-duty in the morning.

“(The bus driver shortage) is a real problem and Seneca Valley is not immune to it,” she said.

Andreassi said Seneca Valley officials immediately crafted a notification to Haine parents Tuesday night telling them of the route changes. She was on hand Wednesday morning at the school to make sure there weren’t any bumps in the road.

“It was really a smooth transition,” Andreassi said.

Officials with AJ Myers didn’t return calls for comment Wednesday.