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MASD, Bus Co. Aim for More Route Monitors
Assistant Superintendent: District to hire additional staff if company can’t secure enough monitors
By Adam Reinherz
The Tube City Almanac
August 08, 2025
Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
MASD Superintendent Donald MacFann, School Board President Mark Holtzman Sr., District Solicitor Gary Matta and School Board Member Diane Elias review documents at Thursday’s agenda meeting. (Adam Reinherz photo for Tube City Almanac)
With classes beginning at McKeesport Area School District Aug. 20, efforts are underway to ensure students arrive safely.
The intent, according to Assistant Superintendent Matthew Mols, is for bus monitors to accompany each route. Krise Transportation, a Punxsutawney-based company, provides transportation for the district.
Shatina Freeman, operations manager at Krise, said district routes require 17 “big buses,” with each holding 72 passengers.
Three monitors have already been hired, but several more are “in the pipeline,” she said. Krise’s goal is to provide a monitor on each bus; if requisite staff isn’t available, though, “more challenging” routes will be addressed first.
In March, two drivers attended a school board meeting and implored directors to aid student safety. “We need monitors,” one driver said. “We need somebody to help us.”
Both drivers maintained their comments reflected those of private citizens, and said it behooved the district to address longstanding transportation issues.
It’s not uncommon, drivers noted, to hear students’ use of obscene and racist language, drug-related discussions and observe fights — all of which threaten both passengers and drivers.
In April, school directors approved a $50,000 line item for salaries for a “bus matron/monitors.”
Following the district’s Aug. 7 open agenda meeting, Mols said although some funds were used “at the end of last year,” the balance was available for hiring additional staff if Krise was unable to secure enough monitors.
At this point, the “first step is to allow the bus company to explore their own employees, or folks that they had done that work in the past,” he said. Once complete, “we'll monitor that as the school year starts.”
Adam Reinherz is a Pittsburgh-based journalist. He can be reached at adam.reinherz@gmail.com.
Originally published August 08, 2025.
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