SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — Springfield Local Schools has been hit with a frustrating setback, only days before the end of the school year.
The superintendent said nine of the district's busses were vandalized, forcing them to cancel some routes Tuesday morning.
"We don't have any motivation, unfortunately, it just seems like people trying to cause problems and that's the saddest part," Springfield's superintendent Matt Geha said.
Of the nine buses vandalized, damage ranged from a single hit to most of the windshield, to even an entire row of windows.
"We're looking at tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage," Geha said.
The damage was allegedly caused by masked people seen in security camera video shared by the school, showing two figures sneaking into the bus pool around 2 a.m.
According to Geha, the pair first started their vandalism campaign against the school on May 18, hitting three buses with rocks from the other side of the fence.
Geha said he shared the video with the Holland Police Department with hopes that would be the end of the issues.
But on Tuesday morning, 10 days later, the masked people returned, this time making an additional six buses be taken out of commission and leaving the school in desperate need of transportation.
"That event May 28 had us cancel routes today because we didn't have enough transportation units to get everyone to school effectively on time," Geha said.
This led to a frustrating morning for administrators and district parents alike, but Geha reached out to his fellow superintendents in the county and they were able to save the afternoon on Tuesday.
"The Anthony Wayne superintendent answered instantly and was able to give us three busses we were able to get by 10 a.m.," Geha said.
With only a few days left in the school year, the loan system was the perfect save, but this incident has left the district with a serious price tag going into the summer.
While Springfield's treasurer Ryan Lockwood said the actual repairs for the buses will be covered by insurance, the security changes needed to guarantee this doesn't happen a third time will cost a healthy amount.
"We're looking at 10,000 [dollars] for fencing, 5,000 [dollars] for additional security cameras and if we add in personnel costs, that could be upwards of 20-, 30-, 40,000 [dollars]," Lockwood said.
Geha said police have no leads on who is doing this so if you happen to know who they might be, call the Holland Police Department at 419- 865-7105.