Nearly 100 school buses ran late across Hopkins Public Schools during the first week of classes, leaving families in the west metro scrambling to get kids to school on time and, in at least one case, waiting an hour at the stop for a bus that never came.
Jenny Dennis told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS her son's bus was still nowhere near the stop around 8:45 a.m. one morning, roughly five minutes after class had already started at 8:40. The Dennis family said they dealt with multiple delays involving their middle schooler that week, including one day when he waited a full hour for a bus that simply didn't show. The district has kept a running log of the late buses as the problem has piled up.
Ryan Winkler, another Hopkins parent, said the delays became increasingly frustrating for families trying to plan their mornings around unreliable pickup times. His family ended up driving their youngest child to school themselves rather than risk another missed bus. Still, Winkler said he had confidence that district leadership would get the issue sorted out.
A Brand-New Contractor and a Brand-New Superintendent
The timing of the breakdown is notable: Hopkins Public Schools switched to a new busing contractor, Schmitty & Sons Bus Co. Inc., under a multi-year contract the school board approved unanimously in May 2026, with the change taking effect July 1, just two months before students returned to class. That same week, Dr. Michael Thomas started his first day as superintendent, having been appointed by a unanimous board vote in April after previously leading Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools. Both the new transportation vendor and the new district leadership team were, in effect, learning the job at the same time the buses started running late.
Thomas acknowledged the district needs to improve. Families sent letters to Hopkins district leaders about the late-bus issue, and Thomas said district leadership replied quickly to those letters. He said he would share families' concerns directly with the transportation team, and was clear about the baseline expectation: buses are supposed to show up on time and get children home on time, full stop.
Why Hopkins Routes Are Especially Complicated
Hopkins school transportation is relied on by many families across a sprawling district. Hopkins Public Schools serves roughly 7,100 to 7,200 students spread across nine traditional school buildings in seven different west-metro municipalities, including Hopkins, Minnetonka, Eden Prairie, Edina, Plymouth, St. Louis Park and Golden Valley. Routing buses across that many city lines, each with its own traffic patterns, adds a layer of logistical difficulty that many single-city districts simply don't face.
Minnesota law also requires public districts to provide transportation or mileage reimbursement for resident students attending non-public or charter schools, up to the district boundary line, which means Hopkins routing plans have to weave those students' schedules in alongside traditional public school runs. Schmitty & Sons, for its part, set up a dedicated Hopkins garage at 835 Decatur Avenue North in Golden Valley, co-locating driver dispatch with district transportation administrative staff at the same site as it took on the new contract.
Staffing a New Garage in a Tight Labor Market
Founded in 1952 in Lakeville, Schmitty & Sons became a 100% employee-owned company in 2016 and now operates a fleet of more than 300 vehicles across several Twin Cities districts, including Lakeville, Burnsville, Stillwater, Roseville and Stewartville alongside its new Hopkins contract. In the months before the school year began, the company was still actively posting job listings offering $21 to $22 an hour to hire bus drivers, van drivers and aides for the new Golden Valley garage — a tight turnaround for credentialing an entirely new roster of drivers before late August.
That hiring crunch reflects a challenge playing out statewide. The Minnesota School Bus Operators Association has said driver shortages remained a persistent problem heading into the 2025-2026 school year, forcing many districts around the state to alter bell schedules or press office staff into driving routes. The Hopkins transportation team is now reviewing route changes and communication practices, and is working directly with Schmitty & Sons to address the reliability issues, according to the district.
Safety Rules Still Apply at Every Stop
Even amid the delays, state safety rules around buses remain unchanged and strictly enforced. Minnesota lawmakers passed S.F. No. 3623 in March 2026, requiring drivers to stop at least 20 feet away whenever a school bus displays flashing red lights, closing a loophole tied to how far a mechanical stop arm extends. The Minnesota Department of Public Safety notes that school buses make more than 10,000 trips daily statewide, and federal data cited by the agency indicates students are eight times safer riding a school bus than traveling in a personal passenger vehicle.
For now, both the district's new leadership and its new contractor are working out of the same Golden Valley hub as they try to iron out the wrinkles from opening week. 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS reported the story aired on Labor Day, when school was not in session, giving families a brief pause before routes resume and the district's promised fixes get their next real test.
