![]() In Westchester County's Hendrick Hudson School District, 25% of bus drivers were out recently dealing with COVID-19.Īnd school districts in Central Texas faced a bus driver shortage this week, including Hutto ISD, which canceled most bus routes Monday, and Leander ISD, which saw delays, CBS Austin reports. Augustine Catholic in Ossining, have been affected, as they usually share buses with public school districts. Since the Omicron variant began to surge in New York, the state has experienced bus driver shortages, CBS New York reports. The difference is right now, the numbers are probably double what they normally would be at this time of year or more in terms of our need," Saunders told CBS News Errol Barnett. Rudolph Saunders, the director of public transportation for Prince George's County Public Schools in Maryland, said on CBS Mornings the problem is nothing new, but the numbers are higher than usual. ![]() EastSide Charter School in Delaware is offering parents $700 to drive their own children to and from school. In Virginia, Michael Mason, retired executive assistant director of the FBI, began to drive school buses to help the Chesterfield County school district. In Chicago this week, 70 bus drivers, about 10 of the workforce, abruptly quit over the districts new COVID-19 vaccine mandate, according to WBEZs Sarah Karp. The National Guard was deployed to drive buses in Massachusetts at the start of the 2021 school year. Take care of the kids in the community and get paid a nice wage for doing that and start on the retirement," explained Grasty.CBS News has also reached out to Maryland's Emergency Management Agency and county officials for comment and is awaiting response.Ī nationwide survey in 2021 found more than half of America's school districts report their driver shortage is "severe" or "desperate." Many drivers retired during the pandemic, and now some are scared of face-to-face interaction with potentially infected kids. a flexible schedule where if you own a lawn company or are at home doing crafts for that coming craft season, you can do that in the middle of the day and just work a few hours in the morning and mid-afternoon. state retirement eligible-you're working for a state retirement. "Full benefits are offered for our bus drivers. The school district said that is because they use an independent contractor service to cover routes, whereas many districts in Middle Tennessee directly employ their own drivers and own their buses. The outlier, Rutherford County reported only missing 1% of its drivers. Cheatham County reported missing 24% of its drivers. In Davidson County, Metro Schools is short 19% - up to 80 drivers even after increasing their starting wage from $16.85 to $22.25 at the start of the 2022-2023 school year. However, Sumner County is still missing 14% of its driving staff and that's not the worst in the region.įor example, Williamson County is missing 47 drivers - 18% of its driving staff. NewsChannel 5 The map above shows the percentage of bus drivers missing in each county. AUSTIN (KXAN) After a sold out Formula 1 weekend that left guests waiting hours for shuttle services at Circuit of the Americas, one of the bus vendors. And so with that encouragement from the local supporters and school board, they feel very appreciated." They're up every morning at 5:30-6 o'clock in the rain, maybe winter weather and things like that. "We had a supportive school board and a supportive kind of commission that at the time this past summer voted to give us a driver increase," said Grasty. In Sumner County, the district also approved an hourly increase that doubled many drivers' pay overnight to start at $18.26 an hour. Transportation directors around the midstate are doubling up routes, asking mechanics and other school staff to drive, hiring contract workers, and applying for extensions to the 90-minute maximum bus ride state rule to bump up to two hours. We want them to come here and drive for the school system," said Sumner County Schools Transportation Director Andrew Grasty. You know, it's a national crisis of school bus driver shortage and in the Middle Tennessee area with the growth that we're experiencing, which is a great thing, but there's so much more employers advocating and they're pulling from the same folks that we are. (WTVF) - The national bus driver shortage is challenging the midstate with several counties missing more than 10% of their driving staff. ![]()
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