The city’s school buses will resume full service for the first time in five weeks tomorrow — but families should expect back-to-school-type unevenness, officials said yesterday.
The routes for more than 150,000 students in grades kindergarten and above are being restored mid-week, during what was originally scheduled to be a five-day break.
But Wednesday through Friday were turned back into regular instructional days after students missed too much class time in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in late October.
“There may be some disruptions, so you should treat this like a first day of school,” said Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott. “We ask for our families’ patience as we again start with the bus services by the companies to our students.”
At more than 200 non-public schools that don’t have the day off, yellow bus service will resume this morning.
Walcott said the city has saved as much as $60 million in transportation expenses during the course of the strike, but he expects that figure to decrease as more families submit receipts for their travel-expense reimbursements.
Walcott said he felt “relief” that members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181 were returning to work for the first time since launching a strike on Jan. 16.
The work stoppage was sparked by the city’s removal of decades-old job protections for bus workers from newly bid contracts covering 1,100 routes.
The union didn’t manage to stop the bidding process, but has committed to working with legislators in Albany and with the next mayor to preserve those protections in remaining contracts.
“We have potential ways to deal with the question of employee protections through the law,” ATU International President Larry Hanley told members during a conference call late Friday. “We intend to pursue that with all vigor in the coming days.”