Christopher Shaw

Review of Congressional Camps

In the middle of yet another transportation debacl...

In the middle of yet another transportation debacle.

On Thursday 8/2
The bus is scheduled to return kids at 5pm, at 4:30pm a mass email went out saying that bus 3 (my son's bus) would not be running, and that instead of having the kids delivered at the bus stop at 5, they would be not be coming home, parents had to pick their kids up before 6:30 at the camp. There was no confirmation that any parents received the message, no phone call etc...

Despite explaining to the staff that the issue here involves the parents knowing where their kids are and getting them safely home, I got apologies for the inconveniences caused by having to come pick them up, saying they did the best they can do, they don't control the weather, completely clueless as to the real problem of parents not knowing where their kid is as it's not reasonable to assume that everyone checks email every 15 minutes (I didn't have access to mine at work, and my wife was driving, we had the grandmother waiting at the bus stop)

Two school days later a similar issue occurs, this time the bus just didn't show up in the morning, so my neighbor was kind enough to drive my son in with hers after we waited around in the morning for 30 minutes.

I spoke with the supervisor of the person sending out bus emails and he apologized, recognizing that the ball was dropped, I believe we had a common understanding at that time that the real issue was communicating and receiving confirmation that the parents know where their kid is when they will not be returned at the location or time expected. That appears to have been wishful thinking, as an email went out stating official policy in the event the kids would be over 15-20 minutes late coming how was still a mass email, with the intent to find a mass texting service...

The busses are regularly off schedule, typically no more than 15 minutes, which includes 15 minutes early, so if you don't want your young kid hanging out on the bus alone with a bus driver then you better get there early (which could mean a good 30 minute wait on a work day when you're paying extra money for said bus service)

The bussing logistics are a disaster, and I'm going to get to the bottom of the contradictory statements I've been told by the staff, but the most concerning issue is the lack of understanding on the camps part of the fact that it's important to make sure the parents know if their kid is coming home on time (or at all)... If a pizza joint was this careless with delivering my pizza I'd be upset, and we're talking about young kids here... Mystifying that this can still be a problem.

That said my kid seems to like being at camp (oh and one of the apology/non-apology notes from the bus organizer was stating that they know the bus was over 30 minutes late in the morning, but he checked with the kids when they arrived and they seemed happy with it, so that's reassuring... Yeah my kid would be thrilled if I missed the whole day of work and we blew off the camp all together to go get ice cream and play games, but that isn't a good measure of how well they're handling the bussing...)