Schools still in need of bus drivers as routes are canceled – WCAX

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. (WCAX) – Staffing shortages are making it hard for some kids to get to school, as some bus routes in the Addison Central School District have been canceled.

ACSD contracts with Bet-Cha Transit to hire drivers and staff routes. Both the company and district officials say this school year has been more challenging than years past when it comes to staffing and retaining bus drivers.

“We do our best to have spare drivers. However, unfortunately, under these circumstances over the past three years, there has been a significant shortage throughout the school bus transportation industry and transportation as a whole,” said Stacy Emerson, the general manager of Student Transportation of Vermont, which operates Bet-Cha Transit and Mountain Transit. She says route cancellations are a last resort but shortages of bus drivers and even cancellations are a statewide problem. She said every week is different and some drivers can’t work certain hours. “The benefits from that are rewarding to them personally. They’re restricted — as you know when you take an early retirement — to the number of hours that you can work based on your income guidelines.”

During the morning rush hours, Heather Goodale’s main goal is simple — get her two children to Weybridge Elementary School. But that’s not always easy considering they’ve had many days this year where transportation was only provided once a day. “There have been times where we’ve expected to have transportation for our kids to come home at three o’clock, but we get a phone call or email at 1:45 in the afternoon that says there’s been a change of plans. So, making that work last minute has been highly challenging,” said Goodale. She said it’s especially tricky for rural areas like the seven towns in the Addison Central School District, noting child care is hard to find and there are no alternative transportation options like Uber.

Matthew Corrente with the Addison Central School District said this year has been hard because of a combination of long-term injury and illness. They usually teeter on 19 drivers for 19 routes, but there’s still a need for substitutes. He said this is the last year for the contract with Bet-Cha, so they’ll be renegotiating and putting out requests for bids from other companies. “But, you know, in the sense that COVID is universal and illnesses is universal and the labor shortage is universal, it’s hard to say that changing companies is necessarily going to be a net positive service that we’re able to pass along to the community,” said Corrente.

Emerson said throughout the past three pandemic years they’ve posted job positions on more than 500 flyers and advertised on social media. To help the shortage on a statewide level, a bill in Vermont’s Statehouse aims to make things easier for drivers. It would alter the Vermont school bus manual, to make it easier to understand, and have prospective bus drivers only take exams about buses as opposed to other CDL vehicles like tractor-trailers.

“For actual school bus drivers, we train bus drivers to be bus drivers. We do not train our drivers to be tractor-trailer drivers. Some of the testing required may include some information regarding a tractor-trailer driver and we train them to be school bus drivers,” said Emerson.

She says being a bus driver is rewarding and can be flexible too, offering opportunities to only do one or two shifts, or pick up after extracurriculars. Some drivers can also take their kids to work with them if needed and some locations allow drivers to park the bus at their home.

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