Bus driver shortage won’t delay school start for local districts
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Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
In this Aug. 16 photo, this sign sits in front of Schweinebraten Bus Co. along Locust Avenue in South Strabane Township. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is reaching to drivers with commercial licenses in an effort to get more school bus drivers.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
The Schweinebraten Bus Co. garage sits along Locust Avenue in South Strabane Township. Some local districts are struggling to fill drivers’ seats before school starts in the next couple of weeks.
Some industries are struggling to fill vacant positions despite the addition of 943,000 jobs across the United States in July, according to the U.S. Labor Department.
Many Southwestern Pennsylvania school districts are not immune to this trend.
At a news conference last Tuesday, Pittsburgh Public Schools announced plans to delay the first day of school by two weeks because of a bus driver shortage. The announcement drew backlash from teachers and parents, who were under the impression kids would start back to school Aug. 25 and 26.
Local districts aren’t facing delays, but some are struggling to fill empty school bus driver seats.
“We’re always on the short end of drivers. We’ve always had an issue with not a lot of substitutes,” said Valerie Brooks,Central Greene School District transportation director. “It’s becoming harder for the bus drivers to get licensed.”
Brooks said the district always works with two contractors but this school year only one will provide transportation – Fox’s School Bus Services in Waynesburg, which Central Greene has contracted with for nearly 50 years.
Over the summer, the district worked with Fox’s to cut seven routes and combined several others. Brooks said working with only one busing company and condensing routes should help things run smoothly this school year.
“(The routes) change a little bit from year to year, but this is the first year that we’ve had such a big change. I don’t know if we could combine anything any further,” said Brooks. “It’s such a challenge.”
Schweinebraten Bus Co., which services Trinity School District, has offered paid training and sign-on bonuses to drivers for years. Last week, the company was short two drivers, but heading into the school year, all driver seats are filled, said a spokesperson who noted that, like most industries, the driver industry is having trouble recruiting workers.
While some districts scramble to fill positions before the school year begins, David Winfrey, director of transportation at Uniontown Area School District, said the contractors his district works with are well staffed.
“We’re at a good point right now,” said Winfrey. “I’m not saying we don’t need sub drivers, but we are all ready to go.”
Bentworth School District is also well-staffed, said Bob Niziol, director of people’s services. The district owns its bus fleet and provides CDL certification at no cost to drivers.
“We’ve been fortunate that we’ve always been able to staff adequately,” said Niziol.
If the driver shortage did make its way to his district, Niziol said, “we would just be more proactive about going out and recruiting.”
Whether well-staffed or struggling to fill seats, getting children safely to and from school and events is the top priority of local school districts’ transportation departments.
When school starts in the next couple weeks, the wheels on the buses will move smoothly, even if that means directors of transportation or contractors are driving themselves – which Fox’s has done, said Brooks.
And calls for staffing will continue until all local districts have enough drivers on hand.
“We’re all in the same boat, whether looking for drivers or sub drivers,” said Winfrey. “Hopefully that will change soon.”