Bussing blues: schools struggle to meet demand for drivers
Schools have trouble finding part-time help
By Sarah Lehr
MAHONING COUNTY
The wheels on the bus can go round and round only if there’s someone to drive it.
Local schools are suffering a bus-driver shortage that has led to scheduling woes, administrators say.
Driving a school bus requires working early in the morning and then later in the afternoon, which makes it difficult for a driver to hold down a second job. Additionally, since it involves children, the job is highly regulated, and most school buses are equipped with cameras.
Applicants must have a clean driving record and undergo regular drug testing and physicals.
“That’s a very stressful job,” Lowellville schools Superintendent Eugene Thomas said. “Bus drivers have to know how to navigate the road but also be cognizant of every single kid – their health, their well-being. That’s a big responsibility.”
Wages for bus drivers vary depending on the district, but contracted, nonsubstitute drivers in Mahoning County can expect to earn between $15 and $22 an hour. Wages for substitute drivers are closer to $12 an hour.
Though he noted that schools nationwide are having trouble attracting bus drivers, Thomas said he believed the shortage has become more acute in Mahoning County as workers are lured to higher-paying, full-time jobs such as driving trucks for the oil and gas industry.
Lowellville, a district with some 300 students in K-12, employs three contracted drivers and a substitute, according to Thomas. Lowellville hasn’t had to alter the start of schools, Thomas said, but it has had to borrow drivers from other districts for sporting evetnts and band competitions.
In the past, “we would schedule events and then figure out drivers,” said Rick Prescott, K-12 assistant principal at Lowellville. “Now, scheduling events is totally dependent on the number of drivers involved.”
About 650 of the 1,250 students in Campbell schools take the bus. The district employs 11 contract bus drivers and one substitute for 13 bus runs. However, due to demand, the substitute works every school day and soon will be recommended for a full-time position, leaving the district with no substitutes, according to Superintendent Matthew Bowen.
All this leads to scheduling headaches, especially when a driver calls in sick.
“We have not been able to provide the consistent pickup times that our parents appreciate,” Bowen said.
Struthers schools employ eight – soon to be nine – contracted drivers. Struthers bus drivers are guaranteed a minimum of four hours of pay per day, but don’t receive benefits.
“We’ve been very close to having to declare a calamity day because a driver called in with the flu,” Superintendent Joseph Nohra said. “Our drivers are phenomenal and are willing to pull together, but at this rate, it seems like only a matter of time before we’ll have to delay classes.”
As an incentive, the Mahoning County Educational Service Center has announced it will provide free commercial driver’s license (CDL) training, which is necessary to drive a school bus, through the career and technical center’s Adult Education Program. This training can otherwise cost upward of $6,000.
“We feel school buses are the safest way to get kids to and from school,” Nohra said. “But it’s tougher and tougher to get drivers. It’s a matter of simple economics.”