Ryan Kisner, director of Apple Bus Company’s Excelsior Springs operation, announced today in a press release distributed by the school district that he is resigning to pursue a new opportunity.
Kisner has been in the position for three years and is expected to finish the school year, Deputy Superintendent Jaret Tomlinson said.
The school district announced that it is seeking applicants for Kisner’s post and plans to fill it by June 2, the day summer school begins.
Kisner’s departure follows a rough week for the bus company and the district. Apple has been the district’s bus contractor for 10 years, operating 26 buses that transport around 3,000 students to school and activities each day.
On April 14, a 7-year-old male passenger sustained what his mother described as “road rash” on his hand and bruises on his back and knee after his backpack strap was caught in the bus’s door at his stop.
According to reports, the child was then dragged along the road until a neighbor alerted the driver, who then stopped to free the student.
Apple Bus noted in its own press release issued April 22 that the driver has been suspended through the end of the school year and would be required to undergo retraining before returning to work.
“After a thorough investigation, we have determined that the driver’s attention was diverted away from the service door, resulting in the student’s backpack being caught in the door on closing,” the statement said.
As had been reported previously, Tomlinson confirmed that the suspended driver was a sub rather than a regular employee.
Apple said it reviewed “statements from the driver, witnesses, the police officer who responded to the scene, as well as school district officials.”
The child was taken to Excelsior Springs Hospital as a precaution, the district and his mother said, and was then released.
That was the more serious of the two incidents in the bus company’s tough week.
To read the rest of this story, please see the Tuesday, April 26 issue of The Excelsior Springs Standard