Gary Schools Get Nov. 10 Deadline To Pay Bus Company

Kyle Stokes / StateImpact Indiana

The Gary Community School Corporation owes its busing company more than $2 million to keep services running. The company gave the school district until Nov. 10 to provide payment.

The bus company that provides transportation services for students in the Gary Community School Corporation gave the district a Nov. 10 deadline to start payments on its almost $3 million debt.

Illinois Central Bus Co. CEO Steve Hemmerlein released a statement earlier this week saying the company told Gary Superintendent Cheryl Pruitt if the district didn’t provide a payment plan the company will discontinue service Nov. 10.

Carmen McCollum of The Times of Northwest Indiana reports the company is worried about laying off employees if they don’t receive payment:

“ICSB cannot continue to pay for salaries, fuel and bus maintenance with no payment plan in place,” Hemmerlein said. “If bus service is discontinued, families of the 4,000-plus students will undergo significant hardship to transport their children to and from school, and the jobs of 100 drivers and staff will be eliminated.”

McCollum continues:

Pruitt said she would like the community and Illinois Central to know the district is working in good faith to present a plan to resolve this issue prior to the Nov. 10 deadline.

District records show that between 2010 and 2014, the Gary Community School Corp. has paid $34,276,060.26 for bus transportation. However, since only $23,781,006 in taxes was collected, it resulted in the district’s having to take more than $10 million from the school general fund to pay the difference.

More than 4,000 students in the school corporation depend on the bus service to get to and from school every day.