The transportation director at Edinburgh schools wears many hats.
Like most transportation directors, Gary Hill is responsible for operations — assigning and managing school bus routes. But he’s also responsible for maintenance, and now, he even drives one of the buses himself.
Edinburgh Community Schools typically has three bus drivers, but since the start of the school year, it’s been down to two. One of the drivers left to take another job, which pulled Hill away from the office.
“It’s pulled me out of the office and the school because I have to do the route,” Hill said. “I’m not just the transportation director; I do facilities and maintenance work. On the maintenance side of things, I get crunched for time. I work longer hours; I average 1.5 hours extra each day — 9.5 hours total.
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“It’s kind of rough on us. We don’t see getting the position filled until the bigger schools get their positions filled.”
Edinburgh’s story isn’t unique. Most of the county’s six public school district’s are faced with bus driver shortages for various reasons related to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Bus drivers were laid off in March when schools moved to an entirely virtual format. Many didn’t return this school year. Pay also comes into play.
The hourly wage for bus drivers at Edinburgh schools ranges from $19 to $21, depending on experience. Comparatively, bus drivers at Center Grove schools make $25 to $32 an hour, and bus drivers at Clark-Pleasant schools make $25 to $33 an hour. Center Grove drivers also get a $500 sign-on bonus if they have a commercial driver’s license and don’t need additional training, said Sarah Pitts, transportation director.
Similar to attaining a standard license, drivers must pass a written exam and a road test to get a commercial license. Training takes about six to eight weeks, she said.
“It’s a blessing when we can find fully-licensed drivers,” Pitts said. “It has been rare in my experience. We’ve been fairly lucky and I attribute that to signing bonuses and paying for experience. I don’t think a lot of people do that.”
Other Johnson County school districts, however, haven’t been so lucky.
Franklin schools is down to 55 full-time drivers this year compared to 61 last year, and the number of substitute drivers has decreased to two from eight, said Doug Dickinson, transportation director. Substitutes are critical right now as COVID-19 cases or quarantine requests can put a driver out of work for up to two weeks.
“We started the school year in decent shape and then, by the end of August, we were down about four drivers,” Dickinson said. “Three of them went to other school districts and one was unable to return due to health concerns.”
Drivers at Franklin schools make about $20 an hour. Some have moved onto higher paying jobs elsewhere. Others decided to leave the profession altogether, he said.
“Moving forward as a transportation director, I need to try to do everything I can to make the culture good so even though we may pay less, it’s a place drivers want to be,” Dickinson said. “For a lot of people, it’s just not in them to have 60 kids sitting behind them. There’s not much of a draw to this profession.”
Despite the bus driver shortage, including an additional six who were out Friday due to illness or COVID-19 quarantine requirements, Franklin schools has been able to manage because it has been on a hybrid schedule for all but one week since the start of the school year in August. With only half the student body at the middle and high school attending school on any given day, drivers have been able to double up routes and pick up additional students without buses becoming overcrowded, he said.
Greenwood Community Schools had two full-time and one part-time vacancy last week. Going into the school year, there were five vacancies due to retirements and drivers who didn’t feel safe returning. But two routes were consolidated, and some drivers are picking up extra students on their routes, said Mike Hildebrand, transportation director.
Greenwood schools had to alter its pick-up and drop-off schedules.
“We’ve actually altered the release at schools,” Hildebrand said. “The high school is now accepting buses 10 minutes earlier. It allows them to start the middle school route 10 minutes earlier. Then, they get the elementary school students so they’re all on time.”
Indian Creek schools has a driver to staff each of its 27 routes, but its substitute pool has decreased to just one. This comes as the district is also seeing a drop in the number of applications from potential school bus drivers, said Andy Cline, assistant superintendent.
“We advertise with yard signs along the roadside,” Cline said. “We put yard signs up in Morgantown, Trafalgar and Nineveh. We posted on our website and our reader board. Either people can’t do the job or aren’t able. We’re not seeing as many applicants.”
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Here is a look at school bus driver vacancies at each school district, as of Friday:
Center Grove: 0
Edinburgh: 1 full-time
Franklin: 6 full-time, 6 part-time
Greenwood: 2 full-time, 1 part-time
Indian Creek: 2 part-time
Source: Johnson County schools
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