Parents, schools working on long-term solution to Durham bus driver shortage :: WRAL.com

As parents in Durham struggled to find transportation for some children on Monday, school district staff were working behind the scenes to find a longer-term solution to the shortage of school bus drivers.

Durham Public Schools alerted parents before Thanksgiving that school bus routes would only operate four days a week, leaving parents dependent on transportation on the fifth day for three weeks until the Christmas break.

The district has divided buses into five groups, with each group having no bus service:

• Group A: No bus service on Monday
• Group B: No bus service on Tuesday
• Group C: no bus service on Wednesday
• Group D: No bus service on Thursday
• Group E: no bus service on Friday

According to DPS, the increasing demand for bus service – with more students needing rides and fewer drivers available – has reached crisis stage. There is a shortage of around 100 bus drivers in the district.

While the rotation is in effect, DPS employees who have previously filled in as drivers will work to identify efficiencies, including changes to routes, that will allow for a longer-term solution to the issue.

“Our ultimate goal is to ensure that the dedicated personnel needed to clean the routes make the routes more efficient (and) that they can be in the office to clean those routes,” said DPS Superintendent Dr. Anthony told Lewis

One parent told WRAL News that she is leading an initiative at her child’s school to organize parents to help each other through December.

Lewis said that in the absence of other solutions, the rotation could last until 2025.

Durham parents have complained for months that students wait hours for school buses that don’t arrive, that they don’t receive notification when a bus is late and that parents miss hours of work making sure their children get to and from school secure.

“The bus was a challenge from the start,” said a parent of a Lakewood Middle School student.

About 73% of the district’s approximately 32,000 students require transportation to school.

In addition to asking parents to shoulder a larger portion of the school transportation burden, DPS has considered:

• Collaborate with the State Department of Motor Vehicles to train employees behind the wheel;
• use of express bus stops for secondary magnet schools;
• Extending the school day – starting earlier or ending later – to stagger bus schedules;
• Partnering with GoDurham to provide free city bus rides to students; And
• Require students who live within a mile and a half of schools to walk to school where pedestrian infrastructure ensures this can be done safely.

There is a nationwide shortage of willing school bus drivers.

Those with commercial driver’s licenses – which school bus drivers are required to have – have more job opportunities – and higher-paying ones – as consumers expect faster deliveries. The demand for long-distance or regional truck drivers is increasing rapidly, and the pay of these drivers is much higher than that of school bus drivers. The same goes for light truck drivers – those who make quick trips in smaller trucks.

Some driving or delivery companies offer new drivers $25 per hour or more. GoTriangle, a regional transit service, starts with an hourly wage of $20.64 and increases it every year until an employee reaches $31.50 an hour after four years.

The state, which funds most school employees, pays school bus drivers a minimum of $15 an hour and a maximum of $24.77 an hour. Durham benefits that pay, up to a maximum rate of $27.32 per hour for those with 30 years of experience.