Bus Co. Blasted For Covid Reporting Delay

First Student waited days to tell the city that 27 bus drivers were coming down with the coronavirus — leading outraged school officials to demand a reckoning for the ​“negligence” that ended with a two-week shutdown.

That demand arose at a Board of Education meeting Monday night. Members learned that employees of the school system’s privately contracted bus company began showing coronavirus symptoms as early as Oct. 22 — but the company didn’t start working with the New Haven Health Department to shut down its bus routes until six days later.

Board of Education members said the company is on thin ice after this outbreak, which now includes 27 Covid-positive First Student employees.

“Yes, they are the only bus company right now, but I think the majority of our parents would rather seek something else than have their children in harm’s way,” said board member Tamiko Jackson-McArthur during a virtual meeting on Monday.

“It just seems like it’s always something with First Student,” Jackson-McArthur said.

New Haven Public Schools Chief Operating Officer Michael Pinto offered board members a chronology of the First Student saga at Monday night’s meetings.

He spoke of the first employees showing Covid-19 symptoms on Oct. 22. But the city wasn’t told that yet.

A First Student employee tested positive for Covid-19 on Oct. 27. Over the course of 24 hours, five or six more of the bus company’s employees tested positive. By the end of Oct. 28, the health department told the company that they needed to ground the buses for two days for deep cleaning.

Jackson-McArthur and fellow board member Darnell Goldson said the company didn’t come forward with the information about the sick employees; instead an employee passed the word to the Board of Ed unofficially. First Student was asked about that by the Independent in an email; the company did not respond to the question.

“It is clear that there was some defensiveness, and probably panic, in the initial two days [on the part of First Student],” Pinto said, adding that the company became more proactive after those days.

As the number of Covid-19 cases at the company continued to escalate, the health department extended the bus shutdown to two weeks. If the company shows the health department that appropriate measures are being taken to prevent this from happening again, bus drivers will again pick up students for New Haven’s limited, in-person Special Education program on Monday, Nov. 16. The buses have also been transporting students for non-public schools in the area.

One safety measure is starting this Thursday. First Student is converting one of its garages into a drive-thru Covid testing site to ​“get as many employees tested as they possibly can,” Pinto said. The employees to be tested include all the drivers who would interact with area students.

After that, the company plans to randomly test its employees every four weeks, Pinto relayed.

Superintendent Iline Tracey said that she has asked the health department for this deeper investigation into how the outbreak occurred at First Student and how it was handled.

“I believe there was negligence at First Student,” Tracey said.

One safety measure less reassuring to Jackson-McArthur and other board members — a pledge from employees acknowledging that their behavior outside of work affects whether they can do their jobs.

The health department found that 11 of the employees who came down with Covid-19 were at a birthday party together outside of work. Pinto said that at least 38 people attended the party. These personal decisions prompted the idea for the pledge.

Jackson-McArthur compared the pledge to a pinky swear and asked for regular testing instead.

Goldson contested this focus on employees’ off-the-clock decisions. He said that the real problem was that First Student did not screen their employees better for Covid-19 symptoms.

“We’re blaming the victims who got sick and not the managers … for not managing,” Goldson said. ​“I heard about this several days before you guys reported it. Staff was coming to work sick and saying that they were sick, but they were put on buses anyway.”

In response to emailed questions, First Student spokesperson Jay Brock said the company doesn’t consider ​“anything more important than the safety, health and well-being of our students and employees.”

He said the company is ​“working with and supporting the efforts” of the city to deal with the situation. The affected employees are in quarantine, he said; the company has told other employees to self-monitor for symptoms and get tested if they feel sick.

New Haven Public Schools pays First Student 85 percent of their usual rate when their buses are idle during the Covid-19 pandemic. Pinto said that NHPS may get a financial credit for this closure, to be revealed at next week’s Board of Ed Finance and Operations Committee meeting.