PEORIA, AZ — “Not having a lot of family and friends in town to help us out, it's just me and my husband who have to deal with this,” says Selma Lubenovic, a mother of two boys. “But then something like this happens, and like I said, we have to fend for ourselves.”
She continues, “It's stressful more than anything. Because I don't know if it's going to be (until) next week, or if it's going to be all year long,” says Lubenovic.
Both of her children just went back to school Wednesday at Peoria Unified School District — but her youngest 9-year-old will not have a bus to get to and from school.
"The Friday before the start of the school week, we got an email from the school district saying that certain bus routes were going to be canceled indefinitely,” says Lubenovic. “And that included my son's school and two routes in his school were canceled.”
"...I've no one to turn to find a solution for this," Lubenovic said, who told ABC15 the notification was not enough of a heads up.
Lubenovic is taking matters into her own hands by creating a list of solutions for the district. She tells me she’s been communicating with her son’s principal and trying to reach district administrators but says they have not gotten back to her.
ABC15 reached out to the district. They tell us they expect to bring newly hired bus drivers out of training and plan to place them on routes "very soon," but no exact timeline was given.
One temporary solution the district is offering: Families who want to volunteer to drive and carpool children can fill out a form.
But for families like Lubenovic, "I don't know who I can trust, to be honest. You know, like, I don't know. It's your baby, it’s my baby.”
