For the second straight day to start the school year, there were delays getting students to and from Lincoln College Prep Academy.
The problems come as the 41 Action News Investigators found the owner of the bus company at the center of the controversy has a long history of financial issues, including a pending arrest warrant for writing a bad check.
"If I appear to be upset right now, it's because I am. I'm not hiding that from anybody because I'm a parent in this school system too," said new Kansas City Public Schools Superintendent Mark Bedell.
Bedell blames the bus company, Daye Transportation, saying it has grossly under performed so far.
"As frustrated as I am with Daye, I also have to look at us as a school system and say, what could we have done differently," Bedell said.
"I stepped in to help the Kansas City, Missouri School District because the bus company they had had massive failures as far as having enough people," said Daye Transportation owner Patrick Daye.
Daye also noted KCPS first gave him routes on Wednesday, updated them Friday and then again Monday night.
He said other clients for three other charter schools first started giving him routes in June.
KCPS hired Daye in April when the company was just a year old.
According to KCPS, "This contract provided for after school tutoring bus transportation on Tuesdays and Thursdays weekly.” It also provided for “Charter, Field Trips, Athletic transportation and other routes as mutually agreed upon on an as-needed basis as requested by KCPS.”
Daye raised money to start the business in part with a Go Fund Me page.
"I think I only generated maybe $1,800 from Go Fund Me," Daye said.
Missouri state records show Daye also financed his company with money from two California-based investment firms.
Both companies have placed liens on his business as part their agreements with Daye.
Court records show Daye also has an outstanding arrest warrant in Durham, North Carolina dating back to 1989. The warrant is for failure to show up for a court date on a charge of writing a bad check.
A clerk with the Durham County Courts said the whole issue could be resolved with a check for $254.23.
Court records also show Daye has a decades-long history of financial troubles beyond that pending warrant. They include two bankruptcies and multiple court judgments against him. Two of those judgments came this year including one for more than $22,000. Another one includes a more than $14,000 state of Kansas tax warrant from 2007.
"I don't think it has anything to do with me running routes," Daye said.
Under terms of the deal Daye signed in April, it automatically rolls over to this new school year.
Bedell said he's going to work with Daye and other providers to make sure student transportation is reliable.
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Andy Alcock can be reached at anderson.alcock@kshb.com.
