Bus shortages aren’t anything new. The issue originated before COVID-19 was declared a pandemic and has persisted through last school year. Multiple announcements would be made in the morning to excuse the students arriving to campus on late buses, some teachers missing half their class due to these delayed pickups. The crisis is escalating because drivers are either retiring early or leaving the industry for better-paying opportunities. For reference, the average full-time bus driver’s estimated base pay in Osceola County in 2022 was around $37,336 per year.
In an interview on NPR, A. Martinez talks to Molly McGee-Hewitt, CEO and executive director of the National Association for Pupil Transportation, about why many school districts are struggling to find good bus drivers. According to McGee-Hewitt, there aren’t enough people interested in being bus drivers, and the low compensation isn’t keeping up with the working conditions. School districts have a finite amount of money, and about 80% of budget goes into personnel. Furthermore, during the pandemic the demand for bus drivers was low, and subsequently, the school district didn’t recruit enough. Not only that, but most people who are job-hunting prefer a full-time job rather than working split shifts like bus drivers do.
This year the Osceola District School Board also implemented a schedule change that further staggers the start and end times of schools, hoping to have more buses available to drive routes. However, this isn’t the first time this has happened. There was the 2019-20 Bell Time Proposal that amended school start and end times to a standardized three tier system to improve delivery timing and reduce the number of school buses needed from 310 to 280. In an article written by Caroline Centeno on The OCSA Ledger, she says that a petition was created to keep all school start times the same, gaining over 1,000 signatures. Regardless, OCSA’s original bell schedule changed from 9am-4pm, to 9:10am-4:10pm, and now from 9:10am-4:10pm to 9:30am-4:25pm.
Kentucky’s largest school district, Jefferson County, attempted to alter bus routes and stagger start times, much like our own county, in an attempt to cope with the issue. However, on the first day of classes, this attempt failed in the worst way possible. Due to computer algorithms that failed to factor sufficient time between stops, it caused schools to close down from significant delays, which brought national attention to the issue.
While the Osceola school district has managed to avoid a major catastrophe, our current end times impede on work and extracurriculars. Maxwell Evans, a 10th grader, described how the bus schedule affects his afterschool activities. “When I get home late, I feel really tired even though still I have to take care of my pets and help with dinner.” For now, all students can do is adapt to the changes bus shortages have caused, and work around these late schedules.
