The Wake County Public School System is slightly behind last year in hiring bus drivers, new district data show, but the district is not sounding the alarm about having routes covered.
The district is also making major changes to its transportation for students with disabilities, adding several new contracted vendors and regionalizing services.
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District officials presented transportation updates to the school board during a work session Tuesday afternoon, and school board members raised questions about improving student behavior and keeping more drivers around.
The district is behind by just 15 yellow school bus drivers, about 2.7% behind this time last year. It has 533 drivers so far, compared to 548 drivers last year.
Another 56 drivers are signed up for a training class later this month and could be hired if they meet requirements.
The district has full-time substitute drivers on top of that number, and it also has numerous transportation department employees with commercial driver's licenses who can be called upon if needed.
The district is planning to have 565 routes next year, more than the 533 drivers the district reported having so far.
'Constant behavioral problems'
Board members asked several questions about driver turnover and whether the district could do anything to reduce it. Driver turnover is about 15% or more. Since last year, 91 drivers have resigned.
To some extent, the turnover is the result of better-paying private-sector driving jobs, said Jason Tonkins, the district's transportation director. The district also doesn't pay drivers higher on the pay scale for their experience out-of-state, he said.
Many times, people try out driving a school bus and realize it's not for them, he said. They realize how much of it involves student issues, parents and other issues outside of just driving, he said. He compared it to trying out for the football team but getting tackled and realizing it's not for you.
Board members told district leaders behavioral concerns on the bus need to be addressed.
"I hear a lot from parents that they don't want their kids to ride the bus because there are constant behavioral problems and such," said Board Member Jennifer Job.
School administrators have to be more involved in disciplinary issues that happen on the bus, Superintendent Robert Taylor said. Taylor said he's been trying to communicate that for years.
"Part of the response I got from bus drivers is they turn in discipline things and nothing is done about it," he said.
School Board Chairman Tyler Swanson said parents should also talk with their own children about appropriate behavior on a school bus.
The district is warning families that students can be removed from a school bus if they have too many behavioral issues.
That's a decision a principal can make, and it carries the risk that the student won't have another way of getting to school.
The district has added a few dozen bus monitors on the routes that are the toughest, but the hundreds of other routes aren't covered by a dedicated monitor.
The district has improved its bus driver hiring in the past two years after raising starting pay above nearly every other district in the area. That was after a school year in which hundreds of students were late to school for weeks or months because the district didn't have enough drivers to pick everyone up in time.
School districts nationwide have contended with driver shortages as the private sector adds higher-paying driving jobs and public transportation systems boost pay as well. Wake funds training costs for drivers and the cost of licensing, and the school board has boosted bonuses for driver retention and attendance.
The district has also reduced the number of routes it has to accommodate a years-long drop in drivers. Next year, it will add nine new non-transportation zones and expand 11 others. Those are zones in which the district has previously provided busing but that it legally doesn't need to because of how close the students live to their school.
Board Member Chris Heagarty asked how many of the students in those zones may ride the bus and whether removing their home from busing could affect enrollment.
That's something the district could eventually track with barcodes on student IDs that better track who is riding, Tonkins said. Many students are signed up but don't ride, so the district doesn't have that precise data now, he said.
The district has discussed those bar codes for a couple of years, and it's just one of many technology upgrades Tonkins wants to eventually make. He also wants radios for drivers to be able to call in concerns.
School district says it's "rebuilding trust and improving collaboration" with special education vendors.
District leaders have added six new vendors for transporting students with disabilities.
Students with severe enough disabilities can ride in vans instead of yellow school buses. Those vans are provided by contractors, rather than school district employees.
For the first time, the vendors will be formally evaluated. Those evaluations will include safety, on-time performance, communication, compliance and customer service.
In its slideshow Tuesday, the district says it's "focused on rebuilding trust and improving collaboration with our alternative transportation vendors" but doesn't explain why that was needed.
That work included holding monthly meetings with all vendors and being more proactive.
Vendors serve about 2,700 students with disabilities.
More than 500 students are so far enrolled in the district's transportation stipend program. The $25-per-day stipend reimburses families for the cost of transporting their children to school.
That program has been plagued with backlogs that have caused parents to wait months or longer for their stipends. The district blamed staffing vacancies for the backlog.
Last year, about 1,000 families were paid about $1.8 million in stipends.