Riverside School District Superintendent Tim Mitchell, Thursday afternoon, responded to a Des Moines Register report picked up by media outlets, including KJAN, that stated investigators found mechanical repair records for the bus involved in the fire that killed a student and the bus driver, were changed a week after a fatal bus fire in December.

In his statement released on the District’s website, Mitchell said “The Riverside Community School District rejects any characterization that inspection or maintenance records for bus #4 were altered.  Following the December 6 inspection of the bus, the District immediately completed all repairs noted for bus #4.  The District documented that these repairs were made, and this documentation is unchanged.

“The on-site inspector from the Iowa Department of Education instructed the District to additionally note the repairs in the Department’s online system, once the inspection report was available there.  The report did not become available until December 15, three days after the accident occurred.  In the ensuing weeks, the District noted repairs for all buses that had been repaired, including bus #4, in the online system as instructed by the Department.

There is no dispute that the necessary repairs for bus #4 were completed before the accident on December 12.  Our focus has always been, and remains, on the student and employee we lost that day and ensuring the safety of our students and staff.”