Jim Thorpe Area School District continues to work through issues with late-arriving buses even as the school year passes the midway point.

Parents say there are still problems with buses arriving late and speeding drivers.

“Our big concern here is we want kindergartners to get home at a normal time, we want to make sure bus stops are not more than 5-10 minutes late, and we want to make sure that number one, foremost, safety is adhered to,” said John Rushefski, school superintendent.

After residents raised concerns online and in person at the monthly school board meeting Rushefski said that he plans to meet with Brandywine Carbon Transportation — the company which provides the district’s buses and drivers.

Lauren DiSanto, the parent of a ninth grader, told the board that her son’s basketball team bus is consistently late, if it arrives at all.

Online, parents have also posted complaints about late buses and drivers who are speeding.

Board member Paul Montemuro said in a committee meeting last week that he saw examples of parents documenting bus drivers driving over the speed limit.

“It’s not the buses, it’s the drivers,” Montemuro said.

Rushefski said that he plans to meet with the owner of Brandywine Carbon and run down the list of concerns which parents and staff have brought to him since the company took over as the district’s sole transportation provider in the fall.

That includes problems with the regular bus runs as well as sports team buses.

He believes that the problem is still due to a lack of qualified drivers, particularly veteran drivers with experience.

“They have a great product, a great bus ‑— but the veteran drivers is what we really need. We’re going to see if they can help us out in some other ways,” Rushefski said.

He said he hopes to see the issues with athletics addressed before the spring. More students participate in spring sports than in winter sports.

The district also lost its director of transportation to retirement in January. The board hasn’t advertised for a replacement at this point.

The district is still working on a job description for the next transportation director.

Rushefski said it would help with communication with parents if the district had someone in the position, but it would probably not address the lack of drivers because they are hired by Brandywine.

“The problem they’re running into I believe is a personnel issue on their end for doing the runs that they agreed to. That’s a big concern we’re going to talk about,” he said.