City Councilor Ed Flynn continued to argue for state intervention to assist with the BPS late buses issue Monday, pushing back a day after the Boston City Council president called such a move “definitely premature.”

“My colleagues and city officials continue to downplay it, but for the better part of a month, I’ve been working with BPS due to a flood of reports from parents about buses transporting kids late by a half hour, an hour, or two hours — if the buses show up at all,” Flynn said, responding to Council President Ruthzee Louijeune’s statements on WCVB aired Sunday.

The debate comes in response to a higher-than-normal rate of late BPS buses in the first three weeks of school, attributed by officials to the new GPS technology through the Zum app and an unprecedented number of late enrollments and route changes.

Though only a third of buses showed up on time on the first day of school, bus performance has seen progress, reaching into the 80th percentile for on-time arrival and 90th for within 15 minutes as of Wednesday last week.

Flynn said throughout seven years as a city councilor, “I’ve never seen it this bad.” Flynn and Councilor Erin Murphy previously spoke to the state education board about an investigation into the issue last week, noting that BPS has delayed any meeting with the city council into late October.

Related Articles

City Council President on late BPS buses: A state investigation would be ‘definitely premature’

MCAS performance in BPS stalled after pandemic decline, district making ‘moderate progress’ towards state mandates, officials say

City Councilors bring Boston school bus issues before state education board

State leaders celebrate schools with biggest drops in chronic absenteeism

‘An immense difference:’ Boston schools make moves to keep kids off their phones

On the Sunday segment, Louijeune said the city and BPS have to “create space to be able to work out these kinks” but called a state investigation “definitely premature.”

Of the council president’s comments, Flynn posted on X Monday that the city council has “remained timid, silent and failed to provide positive leadership” on the issue and argued Boston residents now “need MA education leaders to support our BPS families.”

“We can no longer ignore or normalize the disruption this has caused for students, teachers, and administrators every day,” Flynn said. “We cannot continue to give tone deaf answers to parents worried about the safety of their children, or blatantly disregard how this affects their quality of life.”