Information System Glitch Costs Columbus Schools Money For Mailers

Some parents in the Columbus City Schools said that the district is wasting time and money sending out busing information that is not complete.

Watchdog 10 spoke with a parent who said that she received the mailers that did not contain information about busing pick-up or drop-off times.

“There’s no route number, there’s no time,” parent Dawn Dalton said. “I don’t know what my busing is for my kid.”

Dalton said that she was concerned about the cost to mail the notes.

“At this postage rate? I mean, the schools are already suffering,” Dalton said.

The mailer also contained a phone number that did not work, according to Dalton.

Watchdog 10 called the number several times and only was able to get through once.

A district spokesperson, who declined to go on camera, said that parents need to be patient.

The spokeswoman said that she needed to check how many people received the mailers but did say that the mailers were not sent in error. She later said the mailers simply failed to contain complete information.

That same spokeswoman sent a statement Monday afternoon that said that a new district “information” system was the cause for the mailers and that the district found that parents who failed to correctly enter information triggered problems with the new system.

The spokeswoman said that it was an isolated pocket.

District officials said that they did not plan to spend additional money on mailers.

Watchdog 10 was unable to determine how much money the district spent on the mailers.

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