The State Auditor General’s Office released a report confirming the depth of problems within the Palm Beach County School District’s transportation department.
It was not a final report, rather a list of preliminary and tentative findings and recommendations from the audit.
In it, it says the district paid too much for a new routing system that it ended up ditching.
The report also suggests the district did not properly inspect all of its buses.
It goes on to say that the district failed to properly train some of its drivers; and in dealing with a driver shortage paid millions in over-time, some of it, without following proper procedure.
“This is a perfect reason why the county needed state oversight," said State Rep. Irv Slosberg.
Slosberg requested the audit after bus problems overwhelmed the district at the start of the 2015-2016 school year.
Most of the issues were the result of that failed new routing system coupled with a bus driver shortage.
“I think Palm Beach County is now going to have the best school bus transportation in the State of Florida,” says Slosberg.
"They have a crisis and they really need to address it," said Jack Mahoney. “Last year was terrible.”
Mahoney has two children who ride the bus. And like many Palm Beach County parents last year, Mahoney was outraged over the litany of problems.
“Some days the bus wouldn’t even come.”
Mahoney says this year there's been improvement, but the system is still not fixed.
According to the letter from the Auditor General’s Office, the district has 30 days to respond with an explanation or rebuttal for the identified problems, and a produce plan for how the schools will fix them.