Buses arrived more than an hour late or never showed up at all for some Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools families on Tuesday, Aug. 25, the first day of the 2026-27 school year. The district's new AlphaPortal tracking app compounded the frustration, displaying erratic bus locations that left parents guessing whether a pickup was actually coming.

CMS is operating 750 buses with 98 unfilled driver positions, a shortage the district says it won't fully address for weeks.

Parent Shavon Owens told WBTV her son's bus drove past without stopping Tuesday morning and her daughter's bus never arrived. She ended up driving both children to school.

It made her late to work.

"I just started thinking, school's about to start in 15 minutes or so, I better just go," Owens said. "It took me forever because I think this is happening widespread. I was late to work, [my daughter] was late to school. It was just a whole mess."

Owens said the AlphaPortal app showed the bus jumping between locations unpredictably, making it impossible to tell whether it would actually arrive. When she called the district's transportation office for help, she was repeatedly disconnected.

98 driver vacancies, no quick fix

CMS Transportation Executive Director Delvico "Vec" Dunn said the district has every available staff member driving routes to reduce the impact on families. He told WBTV the district expects to onboard 14 to 20 new drivers within two weeks, once they complete vetting, with another training class scheduled for September and monthly classes after that.

The 98 vacancies are similar to last year's shortage, according to The Charlotte Ledger's pre-school briefing published Aug. 23. CMS serves roughly 25,500 bus stops across Mecklenburg County and transported more than 71,000 students daily last year, a number the district expects to grow, WCNC reported.

On Tuesday, Superintendent Crystal Hill told Queen City News she was pleased with how the day unfolded, saying everything was "rolling as expected." The timing of her comments relative to the reported bus failures is unclear. CMS had not responded to WBTV's questions about the delays as of Tuesday evening.

What Ballantyne families should know

The problems were described as widespread across the district. CMS buses serve Ballantyne-area schools including Ardrey Kell High School, Ballantyne Ridge High School, Community House Middle School, J.M. Robinson Middle School, Elon Park Elementary, Polo Ridge Elementary and Hawk Ridge Elementary.

As we reported Tuesday, the district had promoted AlphaPortal as an upgrade over the previous Here Comes the Bus app. Live tracking launched Monday, Aug. 24.

Dunn encouraged parents experiencing bus problems to report them to their child's school first, then to the transportation office at 980-343-6715.