Like many area school districts, Park Hill is dealing with a staffing shortage of bus drivers and the board of education heard a report on efforts to address that shortage last week.
Director of Transportation Jim Rich spoke to the board Thursday, Sept. 8 at the regular meeting. He said First Student, the contractor who provides bus service for the district, is understaffed by 51 drivers. Of those, 22 are route drivers who handle transporting students from home to school and back and each bus serves three schools on a staggered schedule. Trip drivers – which are down by 14 drivers - handle transportation of students between schools or out of the district for activities and athletics. There are also 15 substitute driver positions open.
Bus driver shortages are a problem across the area, and now that the school year is well under way the district is assessing the impact of the situation. Passenger load counts are up this year, particularly at the high school level and about 20 percent of the 120 routes run do not have permanent drivers.
“We have more high school riders than ever before,” Rich said. “I don’t know if parents can’t afford to buy cars or if it’s the gas prices but we have more juniors and seniors riding the bus.”
COVID is still taking a toll on the number of available drivers, and drivers are also moving to other industries. To keep up with the demand, mechanics, licensed office staff and other First Student personnel are finding themselves behind the wheel to fill in for absent drivers. First Student was forced to pull nine drivers from Minnesota to cover the first two weeks of school, but those drivers returned home just before Labor Day. Three district staff members who were former First Student employees were also moved to cover bus routes.
The district hopes to increase the number of qualified drivers and to reduce the number of daily routes and trips, when possible. To that end, First Student is offering a $2,000 signing bonus to new drivers and a $500 attendance bonus.
Non-instructional district employees are piloting a program of combination positions allowing them to work for Park Hill and First Student at once, including paid training for commercial driver licensing. As of the meeting, within the first day of the new program, about 20 people expressed interest in the combo jobs.
To reduce demand, the district is trying to combine transportation needs and shifting transportation to district staff via rented vans.
Consolidation of daily routes has its down sides, leaving no room for error should a bus break down or encounter delays. This will lead to longer bus ride times for students, meaning the district needs to stay in communication with families if the bus is running late.
Three years ago, the district shifted school start times to allow three shifts of bus routes to reduce the number of routes. If the problems in hiring and retaining drivers persist, the district may need to again change start times to further reduce the number of needed drivers.
According to state statute, the district only needs to transport students living outside of a 31/2 mile radius to the school, which would almost eliminate the need for bus drivers.
Superintendent Dr. Mike Kimbrell said the district is monitoring the effect of the transportation crisis on families and for as long as possible is keeping the burden on the district. If the burden of transporting students is shifted to families, he is aware there would be significant impacts, particularly on more economically challenged families.