Turmoil inside Prince George’s schools preceded bus challenges

Prince George’s County Public Schools said it cleared its 10,000-student bus backlog over the weekend, but families entering the second week of school still face long bus routes, with some students still unassigned.

Although district officials have acknowledged staffing shortages, training gaps and technology glitches, with much of the scrutiny directed toward the district’s new $3.2 million tracking and routing system, internal records and staff accounts point to deeper workplace issues.

Adding to the internal strife, state records show the transportation department was struggling with operational flaws. A March 2025 financial management practices audit revealed widespread operational and fiscal challenges, including a failure to optimize its route system, flawed tech procurement procedures and tens of thousands of dollars in unapproved driver overtime.

Persistent operational struggles

The revelations come after a chaotic first week of school, when thousands of kids were left without a bus assignment because of the new transportation and routing system. The systemwide failure was followed by Transportation Director Keba Baldwin’s resignation and the announcement of a “surge” response designed to assign routes to all 10,000 kids without a promised ride to school.

Although district officials say the worst of the problems have been solved, students and parents disagree.

Anne Riddle, who has a student at Robert Goddard Montessori, said Tuesday that the afternoon bus routes are a nightmare.

“Yesterday our bus did not arrive on campus until almost an hour after bell time,” Riddle said.

This year, Dora Kennedy French Immersion School is sharing a campus with Robert Goddard Montessori, which parents say has created dangerous traffic bottlenecks in Greenbelt, compounded by the routing failures.

In an email exchange Monday with Superintendent Shawn Joseph, Rebecca Fleeson, a parent of four students, noted that two of her children had no bus assignment while her other two were placed on an afternoon bus that arrived nearly three hours after school let out.

Marguerite Hopkins, an administrative assistant in the transportation department, eventually sent Fleeson an updated route assignment that placed her kindergartner on a multihour commute.

Fleeson pushed back.

“Just to be clear,” she wrote to district staff while copying The Banner on the message, “You want my kindergartner to be on a bus for 5 hours per day in addition to her school day?? How is that appropriate?”

In response, the district defended the lengthy commute time as a byproduct of specialty magnet programs.

“Because these are specialty schools that serve students from outside their comprehensive school attendance areas bus routes may cover a larger geographic area than routes serving neighborhood comprehensive schools,” Hopkins wrote. “As a result, some students may experience longer ride times due to the distance between their homes, established bus stops, and the school.”

The transportation department is using the app Chipmunk, made by BusPlanner, to assign students to buses and create routes for drivers. The app also lets parents track their students’ bus assignments and bus location.

At a school board meeting last week, BusPlanner’s chief executive officer, Umar Mir, admitted the company failed to stress-test the Chipmunk app for the district’s 80,000 potential riders before its launch. In response, the board of education called for an audit of the contract, with the board chair calling for financial restitution from the company.

Parents and students are bearing the brunt of this transportation nightmare, but employees are feeling the pressure, too. James McCaffity, president of ACE-AFSCME Local 2250, which represents the district’s routers and drivers, said over the weekend he spent time with the bus routing transportation staff, some of whom were working 12-hour shifts to clear the backlog.

McCaffity said the routers, the department’s employees who assign and alter bus routes, feel the system the department is using isn’t working, but there are staffing issues too.

“We were four routers short,” McCaffity said. “We had 12 bus lots, but we only had eight routers, so each router was kind of going above and beyond to compensate for the lack of four additional routers that was actually needed.”

‘Intimidation, favoritism and retaliation’

The department’s operational struggles mirror internal friction. A confidential internal investigation report obtained by The Banner documented past findings of a hostile work environment, workplace bullying and sex discrimination.

Similar warnings surfaced in an anonymous open letter from current and former transportation staff that circulated online over the summer following bus failures during the extended school year program. The letter described an environment governed by “intimidation, favoritism and retaliation,” in which employees who pointed out operational flaws or raised safety concerns felt targeted.

When asked about staff morale and internal culture during a news conference at the Bladensburg bus depot Friday, Baldwin said he hadn’t seen or heard of the letter.

“The district has policy on culture, environment, communication, all of that that we follow,” Baldwin said. “Now folks choose to work here, right? If you don’t like it, you don’t have to work here.”

School district Senior Public Information Specialist Lynn McCawley responded to questions about the department’s workplace culture in a statement.

“While internal investigations and personnel matters remain confidential, our commitment to a safe, respectful workplace is absolute. We enforce a zero-tolerance policy for bullying, discrimination, and harassment of any kind. Any violation of these standards will result in immediate and decisive action.”

McCaffity said he is unaware of any new investigations involving bullying and harassment within the department. He urged any members with concerns or complaints to contact him or their union representative.

Audit documented fiscal and routing flaws

Before the current school year’s rollout, state oversight records already outlined significant structural issues within the transportation department. The March audit conducted by the Maryland Office of Legislative Audits detailed operational and fiscal weaknesses.

State auditors found the district failed to use automated routing software to conduct routine, systemwide route analyses or optimize bus capacity.

The audit also found the district bypassed competitive bidding to acquire bus camera and tracking technology, locking the district into an unsupported $400 monthly per-bus fee.

The district hosted a telephone town hall Wednesday evening to address the challenges.

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