Districts continue to look for bus drivers as year starts
El Dorado, Junction City are making due with substitute bus drivers while actively searching for full drivers
Next to the El Dorado School District building for the last few weeks has been a bright yellow school bus with a purple and white sign on it proclaiming that the district is hiring bus drivers.
With school in session for over a week now, the district is having coaches and substitute bus drivers filling in for one full driver and two afternoon only drivers. It is also looking to hire additional substitute drivers. A full driver would take routes in both the morning before school and the afternoon when school gets out.
John Thompson, director of transportation and student services, said the district has been getting applications and phone calls about the positions, but is still taking more.
“It’s hard to say why there’s a shortage of drivers,” he said. “The pay is usually good, the hours may be too rigid for those who have a regular day time job for them to be able to make it to work on time and leave work early to drive the afternoon route. So that could be a problem. Others may just not be interested to be in a bus driving down the road with the kids.”
Along with loving students, Thompson said a good bus driver would need to be punctual, disciplined and work well with other drivers. Some drivers have to drop of students to get onto a different bus or pick up students from another bus.
Thompson said one of the biggest challenges is that applicants do not have a commercial drivers license (CDL) or the necessary endorsements. According to the Department of Motor Vehicles, in order to drive a school bus in Arkansas, a person has to:
• Obtain a CDL
• Pass a school bus/passenger endorsement written test
• Take a driving test
• Complete a school bus training course
• Pass a physical
• Pass a background check
• Pay a school bus endorsement driver certification fee
Thompson said when he went to a school transportation conference in Hot Springs in July, others were discussing a need for more bus drivers.
“I think this is a nationwide issue I know that it’s an issue in the state of Arkansas,” Thompson said. “Most districts, a lot of districts, were anywhere between five and 10 drivers short. So, I felt pretty lucky.”
The National Association for Pupil Transportation (NAPT) found in a 2016 survey looking at a nationwide bus driver shortage that 70 percent respondents believe the trend for having a shortage of bus drivers is getting a little worse or much worse.
The NAPT also found that smallest 20 percent of school districts and largest 20 percent of school districts tend to report a more severe shortages compared to medium sized districts. El Dorado’s the largest school district in the county with 4,403 students enrolled for the 2016-17 school year, according to the school’s report card to the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE).
While El Dorado is looking to hire the most, other school districts in the county are also looking to hire more bus drivers. Junction City School District is covered for the time being using coaches, like El Dorado is, but is also looking for one full driver.
Superintendent Robby Lowe also said that finding somebody with a CDL and proper endorsements is a main challenge with filling positions. Junction City is the second smallest school in the county with 680 for
the 2016-17 school year, according to the school’s report card to the ADE.
“For every 10 people you get interested, maybe one is going to work out,” Lowe said. “It’s a good job for older people or retired people, something like that who need something to do. Most people just don’t want the responsibility of getting kids home safely. We’ve always had a hard time having an abundance of drivers. We’re always covered, but we can always use one more.”
Jeff Alphin, Superintendent at StrongHuttig, said the district is fully stocked for daily routes, but are actively
looking for substitute drivers. Strong-Huttig is the smallest school in the county with 307 for the 2016-17 school year, according to the school’s report card to the ADE.
Parkers Chapel Superintendent Michael White said the district is also covered for daily routes and they’re not actively looking for substitute drivers. However, he said they are always looking for people who are certified and willing to be on the list of substitute drivers. PC had 794 for the 2016-17 school year, according to the school’s report card to the ADE.
Meanwhile, SmackoverNorphlet Superintendent John Gross said the district is fully stocked for daily drivers and have three substitute drivers
that can be called in. He also said they’re not looking for any more right now. Smackover-Norphlet is the second largest school in the county with 1,145 for the 2016-17 school year, according to the school’s report card to the ADE.
“We’re doing pretty well,” Gross said. “Our maintenance person can drive a bus, our mechanic can drive a bus. I can drive a bus as well; I’ve kept my license up to date. I think we’re in good shape.”
When it comes to people interested in filling the positions, both Thompson and Lowe said the school district would work with somebody if they don’t have the necessary qualifications, but seem like they would be a good fit.
“We will provide in the bus training,” Lowe said. “We’ll give them study materials, get them set up to take the written part of the test, after they’ve taken the written part of the test, we’ll provide 24 hours of seat training in the bus, we’ll provide somebody to do the training. Then we’ll also set up their skills test wherever it might be. We will do everything we can to get somebody trained if they’re interested enough to go through the process.”