MPS works to reroute buses, find drivers
District faces problem seen all over country
About 700 to 800 students of Milwaukee Public Schools were not picked up on time or at all by their school buses Monday, the first day back for 40 district schools, administrators said Tuesday.
The district is about 80 drivers short for its fleet of 700 buses. Administrators said they are reworking bus routes and hoping to get more drivers before the rest of the district’s 150 schools start Sept. 2.
“We are obviously asking families to remain patient and understand that we’re working really hard to get students to school,” said David Solik-Fifarek, MPS senior director of business and transportation services.
School districts around the country have found they don’t have enough bus drivers this fall. School administrators in Pittsburgh are planning to delay the first day of school by two weeks in order to recruit more drivers.
MPS school buses are operated and staffed by six companies. Representatives from two of the companies said they are scrambling to hire more drivers, offering sign-on bonuses and bringing drivers in from Illinois.
“We’ve just been hitting that pavement really hard trying to get bodies in here,” said Rosalind Thomas, contract and terminal manager for Wisconsin Central, one of the bus companies.
She said new drivers start at $19-23 per hour and can use free shuttles between their home and job each day.
Another bus company, First Student, is offering a $2,500 signing bonus for experienced drivers, or a $1,000 signing bonus for drivers with no experience — and paid training. Jobs start at $22 per hour.
As of Monday, about 16,000 MPS students were signed up for busing. When the other schools resume Sept. 2, there will be more than 40,000 students trying to take buses.
Solik-Fifarek said if the bus companies can find enough drivers for the current students, the district will be in good shape for the schools that start Sept. 2 because those schools have a different start time, allowing the same drivers to pick them up on longer shifts.
The district is also fielding concerns from families who were notified last month that high school students living more than seven miles from their schools would no longer receive bus services. Students were offered county transit bus passes and an option to appeal the decision, though some families who appealed said they were still waiting for answers this week.