Wake County Schools

Wake school bus routes will be longer this fall as driver shortage worsens

The school board voted to raise bus driver pay Tuesday night, while acknowledging past pay raises haven't helped.

Posted Updated
School bus
By
Emily Walkenhorst
, WRAL education reporter
CARY, N.C. — Wake County Public School System leaders are reducing bus routes this fall, as they continue to deal with a bus driver shortage that is getting worse, despite some pay increases.
They are redrawing bus routes to accommodate for fewer drivers, while still providing a route for every student who wants to ride the bus, officials told the county school board during a transportation update Tuesday. That means routes will be longer and buses will be at capacity.

To prevent too many disruptions, the school system will use substitute drivers, offer stipends for certain students whose special bus routes have no permanent driver and continue to recruit more drivers.

An increase in “double-back” routes that allow drivers to do multiple routes in one morning or afternoon, will also mean some students will arrive at school earlier than they did last year and leave later than they did last year, by as many as 40 minutes instead of 30 minutes, Superintendent Cathy Moore said.

Separating students who don’t get along may also be harder, officials said. Bus drivers will receive more training on how to resolve disputes between children.

The school board voted to raise bus driver pay Tuesday night to $17.20 per hour starting out, a $1 per hour increase and a $2.20 per hour increase since last year.

School board members posed several ideas to address transportation problems: Recruiting 18-year-old high school seniors with good grades and driving records to obtain commercial driver’s licenses to become bus drivers, encouraging parents and community members to volunteer to drive buses, suggesting substitute or alternate bus routes for students whose buses are uncovered.

Several board members urged the school system to improve communication with families about when bus routes will not be covered, while noting the challenges caused by canceled buses, especially last-minute cancellations.

“The kids who need the bus the most, their families do not have that flexibility” to drive their children to and from school,” Board Member Heather Scott said. “They need that bus. It’s such an important aspect of running a school system that truly values each and every child.”

Board Member Jim Martin urged the school system to find new areas from which to recruit drivers, rather than hoping existing methods will eventually become more fruitful. He suggested, as a start, that the school system look at employing its own 18-year-old students, so long as they have clean driving records since turning 16 years old and have good grades.

“We’ve got to look for new sources of employees and it strikes me that that’s a source that is untapped,” Martin said, “and we’ve got to do something because continuing to do the same thing we’re only going to see more losses.”

He noted that former Board Chairman Keith Sutton was a school bus driver when he was a senior in high school. Martin said he also drove a truck when he was 18 years old.

The school system is still offering a $1,200 sign-on bonus for new drivers, and drivers are eligible for another $1,250 bonus later this year for continued employment.

The wage increase this past winter only coincided with more turnover, however.

Part of the issue with retention may be working conditions, said Bob Snidemiller, district transportation director.

Last year, school bus drivers reported to WRAL News failing air conditioning in buses and sweltering temperatures during hours of travel at the beginning of the school year.

Snidemiller acknowledged student discipline issues may also contribute to turnover, based on feedback the district receives in bus driver exit interviews.

Pay is still part of the problem, he said.

“There are a lot of other job opportunities out there right now that pay better,” he said. “We can’t ignore that.”

The school system has been decreasing bus routes for years, even as enrollment has gone up, because of a drop in drivers.

Wake County school leaders expect 560 drivers to cover 584 routes this fall, down from 610 drivers covering 636 routes last year and more than 900 routes just a few years before that.

Substitute drivers will drive uncovered routes, if available, and the school system will offer stipends to families of students whose contractor-provided routes can’t be covered by a permanent driver at the beginning of the school year. Contractor-provided routes are not the typical yellow school bus, but rather routes provided by outside companies, typically for students with special needs.

Matt Dees, a school system spokesman, said the district is still working out what the stipend will be and which families may end up needing it.

Statewide, the number of school buses has been going down for years. After years of increases, the number of buses dropped during the Great Recession and has continued ever since. Ridership, however, continued to increase even during the cuts in buses, until beginning to drop off in 2016.

That’s when Snidemiller said the Wake County Public School System began noticing a major drop in the number of bus drivers working with the district. The school system’s route planning office reduced the more than 900 routes offered for years to just more than 800, then into 700s, then down each year since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the scope of the stipend for families whose children don't have permanent bus drivers. It will be only for students who use contracted transportation hired by the district, typically for special needs.

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