SFDRCISD Board Members Seek Accountability After District Buses Suffer A/C Loss While Transporting DRHS Students

On Friday, reports of air conditioning failures inside school buses belonging to SFDRCISD prompted multiple district board trustees to issue messages over the weekend to apologize publicly and call for corrective action. At least one bus that experienced a cooling problem was transporting Del Rio High School’s “Mighty Ram Band” to a competition located in McAllen, TX. Another was carrying members of DRHS’ Queen City Belles to and from San Antonio.

“It’s the worst bus ever”, “it’s so hot” were amongst some of the messages received by one parent whose daughter, a Belle, was traveling under the district’s care over the weekend. The two wish to remain anonymous. The student seemed to desperately plead with her mother at on point texting, “Mommy, come get me off this bus.” The mother of the Belle confirmed to DRNN that this experience was associated with a bus transporting the Belles to a Rams Varsity football game at Davenport HS in San Antonio on Friday.

Joshua D. Overfelt, Vice-President of the SFDRCISD board of trustees, points specifically towards holding the district’s transportation coordinator, Ricardo Torres, accountable.

“Questions must be asked of our transportation department, its director and upper administration,” Overfelt states in a social media post. “How did this systemic failure come to be?” Overfelt says he wants this ultimate question, along with others, answered in a report from the transportation department.

Jesus Emilio Galindo, board secretary, apologized to both students and parents in his statement.

“I sincerely apologize to the Mighty Ram Band and the parents and staff for this unfortunate incident,” Galindo shared on social media. 

Diego M. Almaraz Jr, district board member says administration is aware of the incident and “are demanding a fix immediately.”

At the time of publishing, no official statement from SFDRCISD administration has been shared about the incident. DRNN reached out to superintendent Dr. Carlos Rios and the transportation department for comment.