Boy, 6, arrives at his Lexington bus stop 3 hours late, aunt says. District apologizes.

The aunt of a 6-year-old Fayette County schools’ student said her nephew arrived at his bus stop nearly three hours late on Thursday, the second day of the school year.

“I personally want the district, the bus garage and schools to work together to come up with a better system, I know it’s difficult but I also know Fayette County can do better,” said Karen Arreola, whose nephew is a student at Maxwell Spanish Immersion Elementary School.

She said the boy got off the bus at 6:15 p.m. Thursday.

In response, district spokesperson Dia Davidson-Smith told the Herald-Leader, “During the first few days of school, transportation issues may arise. We work with the school, the transportation department, and families to keep everyone updated if there are bus delays and no child is ever left alone without adult supervision. This was an isolated situation due to a new driver for the route learning their way. We have spoken with the mother of the student and discussed the details, offering our sincere apologies.”

Arreola said she arrived at her nephew’s bus stop on Whiteberry Drive Thursday at 3:10 p.m. with the expected arrival of the bus being 3:15 p.m.

Since it was the first week of school, she thought the bus would be late. The first day, it arrived at about 3:30 p.m.

But Thursday, she said 3:45 came around and she heard nothing, so she called her nephew’s mother, who said Matthew Spottswood, principal of Maxwell Elementary, had sent a message out at 3:30 p.m. stating the bus would be late to all the stops.

At 4:25 p.m., “there’s still no bus or nephew. I try calling the school, no answer I tried the bus garage no answer,” she said.

At 4:30 p.m., the boy’s mother went to Maxwell, and another aunt went to the school bus garage. Arreola said she kept getting conflicting reports from different people on when the bus would arrive, and she realized a second child was on the bus.

At 5 p.m., Arreola reached out to school district police and Lexington police.

“There was just too much miscommunication and no answers,” said Arreola.

The bus arrived at the stop at 6:15 p.m., Arreola said.

“The two kids got off and hugged their moms, my nephew was crying, he stated that the bus driver kept saying he didn’t know where he was, my nephew said he was hungry and really had to go” to the bathroom, Arreola said.

She said Matt Marsh in the district’s School Leadership Office emailed her saying, “I have reviewed your email and am very sorry for the stress and confusion after school today.

“I was on the phone with Principal Spottswood until the bus left the school this afternoon. At that time he sent a message to families that bus 2008 was running extremely late. I will work with him and the transportation team in the morning to work through additional details,” the email from Marsh stated.

Spottswood also offered his apology, according to emails obtained by the Herald-Leader.

Spottswood sent Maxwell parents emails telling them of the delays and said there was a new school bus driver.

There was also a slight delay of a school bus Friday, Spottswood said in an email.

“Communicating,” Arreola told the Herald-Leader, “is the top tier to making solutions happen.”