Starting in August, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools has sent out many emails to students, parents and teachers regarding canceled bus routes, a result of a bus driver shortage.
As of Feb. 14, a pay raise was approved unanimously by the Board of Education increasing the minimum pay for CHCCS Public Schools Transportation’s new drivers from $16.62 an hour to $20 an hour. This rate will be highest among other Triangle districts and transportation departments. The raise will take effect starting next school year, a move meant to alleviate a pay rate that had fallen lower than other area schools.
In addition, CHCCS Transportation has held Transportation Optimization Committee meetings in an effort to brainstorm ways to improve school bus transportation. Some solutions they have considered as of Jan. 30 include a change in elementary school bell schedules, magnet student transportation and bus stop consolidation.
Brad Johnson, the retired transportation director of CHCCS Public Schools (as of Jan. 31), believes the shortage is due to a number of reasons.
Before the pandemic hit, there was already a trend in the reduction of bus drivers, which was exacerbated in late 2020 when COVID-19 started affecting the economy.
The outbreak of the pandemic caused multiple drivers to stay home during late 2020 and early 2021. When students started coming back to school, the drivers were afraid of taking the virus home with them.
When in-person learning restarted, many former bus drivers had migrated to other jobs with higher wages and the option of full-time positions to keep them afloat.
Although CHCCS Transportation tries their best to ensure that bus riders get where they need to be, that doesn’t guarantee they will be picked-up and dropped-off on time.
“[The bus driver shortage] has had a big impact on students,” Johnson said. “We can’t guarantee students get home on time, making them late to extracurricular activities… The drivers could be late picking them up which makes them miss out on their instruction time.”
Many students have experienced issues due to the lack of bus drivers.
“It takes longer for bus drivers to get [to East] and… it takes longer for me to get home,” said senior David Croken.
Students have even tried alternative ways to get home when they can’t rely on CHCCS transport.
“It was raining and I was all wet and cold. The bus driver didn’t come so I was standing there… I’ve walked home before,” said senior Peter Glushko.
Senior Xen Cogdell has had a similar issue finding a way from school to home.
“They always put a million different routes on our bus or put us on another route which is pretty crazy… I used to walk home but it takes like two hours… and it’s tiring,” Cogdell said.
There are even cases where students have had to pay for transportation in order to get to or from school.
“I’ve had to take an Uber or my mom had to leave work to take me to school,” said junior Serai Jones.
The shortages have an impact on more than just the students.
“The lack of bus drivers affects us all because we have to chip in where we’re needed and add a few more routes,” said bus driver Devaughn Jordan.
Photo by Avery Tortora/The ECHO
