Many districts face bus driver shortage
WEST CHESTER >> There is a nationwide shortage of school bus drivers, and has hit home in Chester County.
While summer continues to heat up the daily temperatures across Southeastern Pennsylvania, the quest to find school bus drivers for the upcoming academic year is hotter than ever.
Alison Sload, business analyst at Krapf Group, founded in 1942, said the bus driver shortage is a big problem.
“The driver shortage is really a nationwide problem,” Sload said, “and it was well before COVID-19.” However, she added, the pandemic indeed made the shortage
worse.
Next year will be Krapf’s 80th anniversary. Krapf holds school bus contracts in four different states including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and New York. Sload is a fourth-generation family member of the business. Her greatgreat-grandparents, George Jr. and Eleanor Krapf, founded the company.
Today the company, based in West Chester, is one of the largest familyowned school bus contractors in America.
Krapf estimated that there is a shortage of more than 1,000 school bus drivers in Pennsylvania.
“It’s not just, obviously, Krapf. And it’s not just Pennsylvania,” Sload said of the shortage. “COVID definitely did not help.”
After a mandated shutdown of schools by the governor on March 13, 2020, the school was back in session by the fall of 2020 for many students.
“Now we’re just trying to get people back into the industry and really show them that this is a really great part-time job,” she said.
Sload said school bus drivers are well for parttime work. She drives one herself.
“I love getting in front of the kids every day and greeting them,” she said. “You really get to interact with them in a positive way. You really are the first person you see in the morning other than their family members or guardians.”
Some school districts allow drivers to bring their own kids on the business, allowing them the ability to earn money without having to pay for daycare.
“You have an opportunity to make that kid’s day,” she added.
Drivers must pass an extensive background check and the training takes place about 12 weeks prior to the new employees getting their license to drive a school bus
with students.
“We want to keep our kids safe. They are precious cargo. That is our No. 1 goal,” she said.
To drivers who sometimes drive past stopped school buses, Sload said to be focused in the moment “It is really important to keep your eyes on the road and to pay attention to what’s going on around you — and to stop,” Sload said. “Red means stop.”
She continued, “If you don’t know what to do, the best thing you can do is stop when you see a school bus … If you see a school bus and it’s slowing down — just stop — it can’t hurt.”
“The School Bus Stopping Law requires motorists approaching a school bus with its red lights flashing and stop arm extended, to stop at least 10 feet from the bus,” Ryan Tarkowski, communications director for the Pennsylvania State Police, told the Daily Local News back in February. He has since been promoted to another position out of the state police headquarters in Harrisburg.
The Pennsylvania State Police advocates for people to always drive safely, regardless of the weather.
According to data released by PennDOT, in 2019,
“Now we’re just trying to get people back into the industry and really show them that this is a really great part-time job.” —Alison Sload, business analyst at Krapf Group
there were 726 convictions of drivers who violated Pennsylvania’s School Bus Stopping Law. There were 314 convictions of drivers who violated this same law in 2020.
Krapf’s Sload notes caution and vigilance are key. As a school bus driver, she always watches the children as they cross the street.
Applications for new school drivers are open to all people, from those who can cover routes in the morning and afternoon to those who can just do routes during part of the day.
“We know everyone’s schedules are busy. We need to be flexible as we move forward so that we can make sure we pick up all the kids and we do this as safely as possible,” Sload stated.
“We’re looking for anybody that is willing to drive a school bus,” Sload said.
In Chester County, Krapf is the contracted school bus provider for many school districts including Kennett
Square, Avon Grove, Downingtown, West Chester, Great Valley, Coatesville, among others. The company also provides school busing for schools in Harrisburg.
“Our greatest lesson from 2020: clarity, communication and flexibility are important tools to any business,” Sload said.
Nearly 90 percent of Pennsylvania students start and end each school day on one of the iconic, bright yellow vehicles, as previously reported. The Pennsylvania School Boards Association is advocating for the enactment of legislation that would create a stand-alone license for school busses that would focus solely on being able to drive the bus and oversee students.
According to Rob Rosenberry, director of human resources at the Berks County Intermediate Unit, there has been talk of school bus driver shortages at a national level for
at least the past five years.
And based on national surveys from August 2019, more than 90 percent of school districts and school transportation contractors reported facing driver shortages. More than a quarter of them described the shortages as “severe” or “desperate.”
“The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the situation with school building closures, forcing employees to look for alternate employment opportunities,” Rosenberry said.
At a statewide level, the Pennsylvania School
Bus Association recently launched a school bus driver recruitment campaign aimed at making sure the 1.5 million kids in Pennsylvania who ride school buses can get to and from school safely.
“Our school bus drivers are trained professionals who love what they do and provide an essential service to our communities,” Denille Girardat Myers said in a statement announcing the initiative. Myers is the president of the Pennsylvania School Bus Association.
Janice Holst contributed to this report.