Laura Hillwig expects there to be some unexpected complications on the first day of school, but she wasn’t expecting her children’s arrival back home to be delayed by 45 minutes.

Hillwig said her Slippery Rock Area School District children weren’t back home from school Wednesday until an hour after the final bell rang, while the scheduled time was approximately 15 minutes after the end of the school day.

She said she received notice a little too late that there were delays with transportation that day.

“It was my understanding they were confirming drop-offs and locations, making sure kids were on buses they were supposed to be on,” said Hillwig, who has one child at Slippery Rock Area Elementary and another at Slippery Rock Area Middle School. “It seems like it took an extraordinary amount of time.”

District Superintendent Alfonso Angelucci said drivers for the district’s bus contractor, Student Transportation of America (STA), were confirming routes on the first day of school, which delayed the drop-off of some students, particularly impacting those at Slippery Rock Area Elementary.

“The children were safe. It was just a little later than we anticipated,” Angelucci said. “It was making sure we had everything right, being careful drivers knew where stops were, where routes were. Some of that caused delays.”

Alicia Miller, who said she resides less than four miles from Slippery Rock Area Elementary School and less than two miles from the middle school, said her children experienced bus delays for both their morning pickups and afternoon drop-offs.

Because of the morning delays, Miller’s third-grade daughter and eighth-grade son were driven to school Wednesday and Thursday mornings.

Miller said her son’s scheduled pickup was 7:10 a.m., but when the bus hadn’t arrived by 7:25 a.m., he was taken to school.

Her third-grader was scheduled for pickup at 8:32 a.m. Her parents opted to take her to school at 8:45 a.m. According to Miller, she saw the bus drive by the stop at 8:56 a.m.

“We didn’t want her to be late on the first day,” Miller said.

Later that day, her daughter exited the school bus in tears.

“She got off the bus. Her face was red, and she had tears flying out of her eyes,” Miller said. “She told me, ‘The bus driver was trying to make me get off at a stop that wasn’t mine.’”

It was 5:01 p.m., according to Miller, who said her daughter’s scheduled drop-off was to be 4:11 p.m.

Miller said she opted to pick up her daughter on the second day of school to avoid further hassle. She said she observed the bus go by at 4:41 p.m. that day.

“I don’t think it should be my responsibility (to drive them to school),” Miller said. “I’m a taxpayer, and I pay for that transportation. With the cost of fuel right now, it doesn’t seem right.”

Katie Grandin, who has a child at Moraine Elementary, said she saw delays, too. Her child didn’t get home from school until after 4:05 p.m., she said.

She said she only lives about 10 minutes away from Moraine Elementary, so she said she was further frustrated when a notice of delay informed her that the buses had “left 15 minutes ago.”

“Moraine did put out a notice that there was a delay, and it said the buses left 15 minutes ago,” Grandin said. “I had a little bit of a heads up, but a half hour delay, when they said they left 15 minutes ago just doesn’t make sense.”

At an April meeting, the Slippery Rock Area school board voted to approve a five-year transportation contract with STA to cover the northern district routes.

Angelucci said STA has driven for the district’s southern routes for 22 years, but Wednesday was the first time the company handled all of the district’s routes.

The Slippery Rock-based Campbell Bus Lines had previously been contracted to handle some of the routes.

Grandin said she is skeptical of the new bus company, because she didn’t have any issues with the previous contractor.

She also said that though she has some reservations, she is optimistic that the scheduling will improve.

“Things are kind of chaotic, and I understand, but my fear is this isn't going to get resolved, and it's going to get worse and worse,” she said.

Angelucci said the transportation department also reorganized some routes over the summer.

He said there were fewer issues on Thursday than Wednesday, and he doesn’t anticipate there being any other major delays with drop-offs.

“They did a good job of working with staff today in fielding questions,” Angelucci said. “The good news is today things were very much better and on time: much, much, much better.”

Attempts to reach STA on Thursday evening were not successful.