Linda Borg|The Providence Journal
PROVIDENCE —A Boston charter school hired a party bus complete with a stripper pole to take students on a field trip. Massachusetts deployed itsNational Guard tobus hundreds of students to school. And some bus companies have offered hiring bonuses to recruit newdrivers.
Closer to home, after six bus drivers called out sick last week, Warwick parents scrambled to get their children to school and pick them up again the afternoon. Just a day earlier, the Warwick schools announced to parents that they would consolidate bus routes, citing a "severe shortage of student bus drivers on both a local and national scale."
Driver shortages predate the pandemic, but COVID has only made it worse. In a national survey, half of school bus companies called theirdriver shortages "severe" or "desperate."
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In Rhode Island, the driver shortage is so critical that Gov. Dan McKee issued an executive order in August to allowbus drivers licensed in Massachusetts and Connecticut to work here. It also permitssome the transport of students aboard vehicles other than the yellow school buses.
A bumpy road for charter schools
Charter public schools, whichbelong to astatewidetransportationsystem, reported problems ranging from late bus arrivals to new drivers not knowing their routes.
Blackstone Valley Prep, a network of charter schools in northern Rhode Island, has seen its attendancedropfrom 95%before COVID to 89%thisfall. At least some of that, saidchiefexecutive officer JeremyChiappetta,is due to busingsnags.
“Last year, we budgeted for 36 bus runsandwere told we had 28,” he said. “Aweek beforeschool started, they could only accommodate21 runs becauseof drivershortages.We’ve had to change our routesandchange ourstart times, all in order to accommodate having fewerpeople. Couple that with the state Health Department’s COVID rules, and it’s been a real challenge.”
Charter schools have reported having to quarantine entire busloads of students because children didn't follow the seating chart and it was impossible to determine their close contacts.
“I had 120 students out last week,” said Meg O’Leary,co-founderof the LearningCommunity, a K-8 charter school in Central Falls. “The company has shortages. They keep rotatingwho is driving the buses and who the monitors are. It has a huge ripple effect. Everyone is assigned seats becauseof contract tracing. If the new monitor doesn’t know our kids, it’shard to reinforcethe seating chart."
Buses, O’Leary said,often arrive late, which cuts into the time the school has carved out to help struggling students catch up.
O’Leary wishes Rhode Island would adopt a test-and-stay program similar to the one in Massachusetts, where students are tested at school and get the results in 15 minutes. (McKee announced last week that the state plans to pilot a 30-day test-to-stay program in a single district.)
Between the bus driver shortages and the disruptions caused by contact tracing, charter schools said it’s been a fragmented and frustrating start to the school year.
“If a bus doesn’t run to Bristol, it impacts attendance,” said Rose Mary Grant, head of school at the Highlander Charter School.
Highlander buses most of its middle and high school students from Providence toWarren, a drive many parents can’tsqueeze into their work schedules.
“Some days, I know management is driving the buses,” she said. “They are trying their best.”
The school bus driver shortage is definitely pandemic-driven, according toCurtMacysyn, executive director of the National School Transportation Association, which conducteda nationalsurvey with two other trade associations.
Because many districtswere fully remote or hybridlast year, the industry lost a fullcycle ofdriver recruitment,hesaid.Retirements went up as drivers worried about driving busloads of potentially infected children.
“In this environment,driver retention becomes more critical,” he said. “We are also highlighting the school bus driver position —accentuating the position — summer vacation, flexible hours, potential built-in child care.”
First Student offers $4K signing bonus
First Student, the largest bus companyin Rhode Island, lost 25% to 30% of its employees over the last 18 months.
Those drivers who did return last year often worked fewer hours because many schools were on a hybrid schedule. Then, when schools had to quarantine a class, sometimes an entire school, bus drivers lost even more money.
First Student raised wages —from about $17 an hour pre-pandemic to more than $20 an hour post-COVID.
And it's offering $4,000 signing bonuses to licensed drivers.
Further exacerbating the shortage, some drivers figured out they could make more money on unemployment (during the time ofenhanced COVID benefits) than they could working, the company says.
First Student responded by tapping support staff, those with the required licenses, to cover the routes.
"It's all hands on deck," said Bill Roche, the company's regional vice president. "Ideally, we'd like to hire 80 to 100 more drivers."
The company employs 700 drivers.
Warwick is biggest challenge
Roche said the company's biggest challenge is Warwick, because the city schoolscut a bunch of routes during the beginning of the pandemic and then wanted them back this year.
"Patience is key," he said, adding that most school districts have been very understanding.
Meanwhile, Cranston, which hires its ownbusdrivers,monitors and aides, has had to double up on runs, which means students spend more time on the bus.
“Even before COVID, we were having difficulty recruiting bus drivers,” Supt. Jeannine Nota-Masse said. “We have asked families to assistby drivingtheir students to school, and our community has been very helpful.”
Linda Borg covers education for the Journal.
