School Bus Service Returning to Normal

School bus service returned almost to normal Monday in the Los Angeles Unified School District after a three-week strike by drivers employed by the district’s largest bus contractor, Laidlaw Education Services.

At Daniel Webster Middle School in West Los Angeles, Principal David Legacki said spirits were high. “This morning there were no late buses,” he said.

During the strike, many sports games and field trips were canceled, and some students throughout the sprawling district arrived at school up to an hour late.

Webster students, for example, missed out on field trips to the Getty Center and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

On Monday, schools and district officials reported no substantial delays.

Junior varsity sports events and field trips are now being rescheduled.

“It’s nice to be back to normal,” said Thane Opfell, a senior administrator at Monroe High School in North Hills, who was filling in for a vacationing principal Monday.

Members of Teamsters Local 572, which represents more than 800 drivers employed by Laidlaw, voted Sunday to approve a new three-year contract.

Negotiated late Friday night, the contract brought an end to a bitter strike that disrupted transportation for nearly 20,000 students.

About 55,000 students in the district are on bus routes served by other companies or district-owned vehicles. The district used those other firms and its own drivers to transport students on the Laidlaw routes during the strike.

On Monday, Laidlaw fielded drivers on all but 42 of its 707 routes; district officials covered the rest.

Officials with the school district and the union said the missing drivers were not involved in any organized action or protest.

Instead, they said the missing drivers were probably unaware that the strike had been settled. All drivers are expected to be back at the wheel today.

“When something like this happens,” said school district spokeswoman Cricket Bauer, “it takes people a little bit of time to get back on their old schedules.”