Holy Cross Academy students without transportation due to ‘staffing issues’

ROSS TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Holy Cross Academy is a private Catholic school that draws students from multiple districts. Parents who live in the North Allegheny School District say they typically get a bus schedule from the district five to seven days before the first day of school. That never happened, according to some parents.

Parents say they had to dig for answers and then just 12 hours before the first day of school, they found out they were on their own.

North Allegheny residents Mandy Kulifay and Brittany Zuckerman are beyond frustrated.

“If you had given me a couple days notice, heads up, things could’ve been planned so much better. There would’ve been a lot less stress on everybody’s part,” Kulifay said.

“For working parents, it makes it very challenging and I just question who has the best interest of the kids,” said Zuckerman.

The two are moms to kids enrolled at the Holy Cross Academy in Ross Township. It’s a private school that utilizes their school district’s transportation.

Kulifay and Zuckerman say they feel they’ve gotten the run around from the North Allegheny School District about when they could expect to see their kids’ bus schedule.

“It took my husband, who happens to be an attorney and went through and cited the legal code, which is districts have to provide bussing to private school students,” said Zuckerman.

Zuckerman says it wasn’t until after that letter was sent that the district finally sent out the following email Wednesday night, saying:

“Due to staffing issues, transportation will not be available for Holy Cross students until further notice. The district was recently notified by the contractor hired to transport Holy Cross students that their services are no longer available. The company has ceased operations.”

WPXI reached out to North Allegheny for comment. It provided the following statement:

“The district immediately began searching for alternative transportation for our private school students by reaching out to 11 other contractors. We recognize this is unacceptable and are steadfastly working to resolve this matter. "

“It is unacceptable. Any type of communication that you could’ve provided even - please just plan on taking your kids Thursday and Friday,” said Kulifay.

While parents are put out, children who’ve been waiting all summer to ride the bus say it’s pretty disappointing.

“I did want my little brother to ride the bus for his first time. He didn’t ride the bus last year,” Zuckerman’s child said.

North Allegheny says it hopes to have this issue resolved by this upcoming Monday. In the interim, NA says it’ll offer reimbursement for transporting students to school.

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