Bus driver shortage across the county. What Livingston schools are doing to combat it.

Jim Glenn retired from networking company Cisco Systems about two years, but recently found himself seeking employment.

So his daughter Nicole Glenn, teacher at Voyager Elementary School in Howell, encouraged him to attend Howell Public Schools "try-it-out" day, at which people could "test drive" buses and learn more about the profession.

"I came out mainly just to see what it's like," Glenn said.

Livingston County schools, in conjunction with the Livingston Educational Service Agency, are seeking bus drivers to fill vacancies that plagued schools nationwide. This week, for instance, HPS hosted the try-it-out day to get prospective drivers in the door.

Brighton Area Schools Superintendent Matt Outlaw said the problem with finding enough drivers isn't a new one, and has been a challenge for some time. Some school administrators said it was an issue long before the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We have struggled for several years to attract new bus drivers, however the issue became much more pressing about three years ago," Howell Public Schools Director of Communications Tom Gould said.

HPS bus driver try-it-out day

During the try-it-out day Thursday, people got to see what a career as a bus driver looks like. Gould said people often say they couldn't handle driving something "that big" and the event offered an opportunity to show them otherwise.

"We hope this event will help ease some of the nerves that come with thinking about driving the bus," Gould said.

Trainers were on site to teach people about the process of earning a commercial driver's license, which is required to be a bus driver.

"In the end, we hope that the event will help us attract some additional drivers, which will help us continue to meet the transportation needs of our families," Gould said.

The numbers tell the story

Some districts have enough drivers to fill buses, but superintendents have said it's important to have substitutes to cover times when regular drivers are unavailable. Currently, BAS has 27 buses, and enough drivers to cover routes for the fall, but they are always looking for more.

HPS has 39 bus routes and 39 drivers. An ideal number of drivers, officials said, would be at least 45 . Similarly, Superintendent Chuck Hughes of Hartland Consolidated Schools said the district would like about 43, with five to 10 substitutes. They currently have 40 bus routes and 59 buses, but only 36 bus drivers and two substitutes.

"Last year, we continued to experience driver shortages resulting in temporarily suspending bus routes. We worked to consolidate a few bus routes mid-year so we did not have to suspend bus routes throughout the second semester," Hughes said. 

Similarly, Outlaw said while fall bus routes are covered, district officials would like to have some substitute drivers.

"We are regularly using dispatchers, and mechanics as backup drivers," Hughes said. "Two building maintenance staff are also able to drive when we have exhausted all other options."

"There have been times when our mechanics, our certified support staff and/or our transportation director have had to chip in, but we have been fortunate to not have any significant disruptions to our service," Outlaw said.

With fewer drivers, Gould said, the district has to double up routes.

Attempts to recruit bus drivers

One reason bus drivers are difficult to find, according to Outlaw, is the split shift required for the position. Drivers must work early in the day, with a gap in the middle, and then return to pick up students in the afternoon.

"This schedule doesn't work well for everyone, but works great for others," Outlaw said.

With concerns about bus driver shortages, Brighton, Hartland, Howell and Pinckney schools, all of which have a collaborative agreement with LESA have been making strides to fill vacancies.

Fowlerville Community Schools is not included in the collaborative agreement because they have their own department, according to LESA Superintendent Mike Hubert.

LESA's and the Livingston County Transportation Consortium's recruiting has included offering competitive wages and health benefits, as well as placing advertisements on the radio, physical banners on buses and open areas that advertise, and sending letters to their parents. They also  created beabusdriver.org, which allows interested people to find information about being a bus driver and apply to start the process.

Hubert said the districts are looking for drivers in a competitive market, not just for schools, even citing Amazon as competition. Since starting the recruiting effort in the spring, Hubert said, about 50 people have applied, and about 25 will become bus drivers.

"It's been a really good response, but not necessarily enough response. We need to keep the awareness of this kind of work out there and we're going to continue that as we move forward because the marketplace is so competitive right now for people who can work at that wage level in different industries," Hubert said.

A 40 hours per week opportunity as a driver

Another way the collaborative is working to find drivers, according to Hubert, is by offering the option to work 40 hours a week as a bus driver, directly acknowledging the issue with the split shift.

He said the collaborative has worked together to create a pilot program that it will try out in the coming year.

"They'll do a morning run, but then they'll be able to work in some of our instructional programs or work within the schools during the middle of the day with a break and finish up their afternoon run," Hubert said.

He added, that having bus drivers in the schools during the day, or even as job coaches in the building for students would provide extra help.

"We took the crisis we were in and this need to find people and just tried to think really smart about how we could create a good opportunity," Hubert said.

Officials from Pinckney Community Schools and Fowlerville Community Schools did not immediately reply to requests for information.

Contact Livingston Daily reporter Patricia Alvord at palvord@livingstondaily.com about news coverage.

This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Livingston County schools are suffering from bus driver shortages