Districts Recoup Thousands Following Bus Debacle

Westway Coach bus service kicked off the first weeks of school with missed stops, missing buses and students being dropped off late to school and home.

, and Downers Grove School District 58 will now recoup tens of thousands of dollars for compensation from Westway Coach, Inc. 

Per their contract with Westway, the districts can receive 10 percent back for a late bus, 25 pecent back for an incorrect route (like a missed pick-up) and 100 percent back for a route where no bus showed up, according to Patrick Broncato, assistant superintendent of personnel for District 68. 

Broncato said officials had been reviewing their records to tally up each of the offenses.

Each district will recoup 50 percent of what it paid to Westway for the first three weeks of school, when service was so bad school and park district buses were deployed to pick up stranded students. 

How much each district will get back depends on how many routes it has. 

Woodridge School District 68 will recoup $26,000 from Westway. Downers Grove School District 58 will recoup $42,000 and District 99 will recoup $43,227. 

District 68 chose to work with Westway Coach this school year as part of an agreement with Downers Grove Grade School District 58 and . The three districts decided combining bus services would provide financial savings for each.

The decision will save District 68 $300,000 a year, according to Kevin Wegner, assistant superintendent of business for 

District 68 Board Member Leslie Pollack asked in September if the board could come up with some procedure or protocol for when the district switches bus companies again.

"Is there something more we could of done?" Wegner said. "There always is."

The district will do things differently if it switch bus companies again, he said.

"If we switch again, we will be much more involved in the first year," Wegner said. "I trusted that they were competent enough to do this and I don't know that in my professional career I'll ever get over it."