City schools can’t ensure bus service for all pupils

Pittsburgh Public Schools officials said Friday that the district expected to be short at least 1,200 bus seats when all students are eligible to return to in-person instruction in May because of a “severe” shortage of drivers.

Because of the shortage, the district said, it cannot guarantee all students will be able to come back to school in person.

“Unfortunately, that is a possibility,” Superintendent Anthony Hamlet said about the notion that not all students may be able to return. “We’re working diligently on the back end to make sure we try to accommodate our students and families as best as possible.”

The district started its phased reopening this week after more than a year of fully remote instruction for students in city schools.

Officials said the district has the necessary space to transport the approximately 4,800 students who returned to schools this week and the 5,200 students set to return on April 26. However, with

about 10,000 more students expected to return the week of May 3, they said there will be a 1,200- seat shortage.

Children will be prioritized for transportation on a need- driven basis similar to the way the district selected students for different categories of its phased return, according to Mr. Hamlet.

Megan Patton, the district’s director of pupil transportation, said the district would need at least 200 more bus drivers to ensure transportation for all students expected to return May 3.

“Due to the pandemic, all of our companies are experiencing a severe driver shortage,” she said.

The district, which contracts with 20 bus carriers, said it was looking for other transportation companies to fill some of the needed routes. Mr. Hamlet said the district is working to enhance its bus driver recruitment efforts and engage with community groups and local churches to find alternative means of transportation.

Parents who are able to provide transportation for their own children should consider doing so, officials said. If families are not planning to send their children to school on buses, officials asked that parents notify the district by submitting a ticket through the “Let’s Talk” online tool or by calling the parent hotline at 412- 529- 4357 so that those seats can be opened to other students.

The bus driver shortage problem is not new, but it has been exacerbated by the COVID- 19 pandemic.

Todd O’Shell, vice president of operations for ABC Transit, one of the transportation providers for the district, said many bus drivers left their jobs during the pandemic to find more regular work.

“Without many of the routes operating last year, drivers left ABC Transit for steady work in other areas,” he said. “Unfortunately for us, the pandemic created many different opportunities for people that were attractive to our drivers at the time, such as delivery services and the service industry. So that lack of work was definitely a hardship for us.”

Mr. O’Shell said ABC Transit offers to pay for commercial drivers’ license classes, pays more than $ 21 an hour, and can make accommodations for drivers with children. Despite that, he said, bus driver applications at ABC Transit were down 41% over the last six months compared with those received during the same time period before the pandemic.

The pandemic further complicates students’ transportation because of COVID- 19 capacity limits on buses.

The district has two students sitting in each seat on its yellow buses, allowing for a greater number of children to be transported than the one student per seat protocol recommended by the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Students are required to wear masks at all times on buses.

Port Authority buses, which some students use for transportation to school, are less reliable than usual because drivers are required to skip stops if their vehicles have reached full capacity.

While the district had the necessary amount of space on its buses this week, Ms. Patton said there were some difficulties. Nine drivers took leave, she said, leaving the district scrambling to cover 27 routes. About 20 other routes were empty.

Mr. Hamlet said the district will continue to provide transportation updates to families.

“Ultimately and hopefully,” he said, “all this will work out.”