WESTERVILLE, Ohio — Some students in Westerville City Schools got to go home early Monday. It’s just nine days into the school year, but a shortage of bus drivers meant the district had to fallback on a plan to make sure there were enough buses to get all students home.
Randy Snyder, Westerville City Schools Transportation Coordinator, said the district started the year with six bus routes that didn’t have a driver assigned to them full time. Those six routes combined with several drivers calling out for Monday meant there wouldn’t be enough drivers to cover the routes.
“When we get in the neighborhood of about 15 routes to cover, that’s where we start feeling the impact,” he said. “Today alone we have over 40 drivers who are covering assignments to keep us in that in-person learning environment.”
In order to keep students in-person and still have enough buses running, the district opts to let high school students out at 1:20, which is 45 minutes earlier than normal. Middle school students get out half an hour earlier at 2:20. Elementary and preschool students are unaffected by the changes to ensure the youngest students aren’t home alone any earlier.
That early dismissal plan doesn’t change, so parents can have a plan for when it is used.
Parents who talked with 10TV Monday said they understand the struggles of finding bus drivers, but it can be a crunch.
“I work from home, so I don’t have to have to do that much rearranging, but I know for a lot of parents, they are scrambling. If they don’t have the luxury of working from home, they have to find that alternative of ‘how am I going to get home’ especially if you have a middle schooler,” said parent Julie Apsey.
“I totally get there is a shortage. I don’t know what the alternative would be, but I know it can put families in a bind. I have the privilege of being able to shift some things to be home. I know not everyone can do that, so there’s some scrambling for parents,” said Amanda Epting.
The bus driver shortage is something affecting districts across the country. Snyder said 6,000 school bus drivers have quit across Ohio in the last four years.
“We predicted this over 10 years ago, saw a driver shortage coming. Many people will ask if was due to the pandemic. That was part of it, not the primary reason, it just accelerated the situation,” he said.
He said the district is in the process of bringing two more drivers on board in the coming days and is actively hiring more drivers. He said ideally, the district could use 15 more drivers.
Westerville owns and operates its own buses. Drivers are Westerville City Schools employees. Snyder said the district is offering hiring incentives to bring more drivers on board and is recognizing years spent at other districts to entice veteran drivers to work for the district.
In the 2023-24 school year, WCSD used their alternative bussing plan 13 times. That was a decrease from the 23 times in 2022-23.