Administrators have swapped out their desks for the driver’s seat, districts are combining routes and some even face closing in-person learning due to a lack of school bus drivers in Michigan.
Schools across the state face a shortage of bus drivers to transport students to school every day, and officials in charge of transportation departments say the COVID-19 pandemic has only complicated the matter.
Mahlon Williams, transportation director for Buchanan Community Schools, said his job duties as director must be second to the necessary role he plays as daily bus driver in his district.
Buchanan runs six bus routes and could use another two full-time drivers to cover the district, Williams said. In the event a driver gets sick and needs the day off, he said the district is out of luck.
“Which is why I’m driving morning and afternoon,” Williams said.
Southwest Michigan schools like Buchanan and others across the state have been grappling with the school bus driver shortage for awhile.
Kellie Dean, president and CEO of Dean Transportation, said his company provides bus drivers to 140 districts across Michigan and saw a shortage for a few years even before the pandemic, Dean said.
“It’s a concern, there’s no sugarcoating it,” Dean said.
Michigan has about 19,000 school bus drivers, said Bill Disessa, spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Education. The state does not track data related to the supply and demand of school bus drivers but considers the need critical based on feedback from local districts, he said.
The state is short about 2,500 bus drivers, said Kalamazoo Educational Regional Service Agency Transportation Specialist Bill Dawson, who said he gathered that estimate talking to transportation directors across the state.
Related: Kalamazoo area seeks school bus drivers to address countywide shortage
When the economy is good and jobs are plentiful, the competition for employees is higher, Dean said. Districts across the state and companies like Dean’s must get creative to attract people to the job. Many will pay for job training and offer competitive wages, he said.
Michael Shibler, superintendent for Rockford Public Schools near Grand Rapids, said the bus driver shortage is a “significant issue” for his district.
Rockford has used their transportation director, trained office staff and mechanics to drive routes when in a pinch, Shibler said. It’s not a new issue for Rockford, he said, though the pandemic has made an impact on the shortage.
Like other districts, Rockford takes safety precautions when transporting students such as requiring masks, social distancing and using sanitizer.
“Driving a bus is a tough job to begin with,” Shibler said, and COVID-19 precautions are an extra responsibility that drivers now have.
Dean agreed that the COVID-19 pandemic made a bad problem worse.
When schools were closed in March, Dean’s drivers were out of work and many left the job because of the uncertainty for consistent, stable income.
“They had a family to feed,” Dean said. “They needed to go because we just didn’t have work for them.”
Some of his drivers had to take a leave of absence from the job due to childcare responsibilities or preexisting conditions that made working during a pandemic a higher risk, he said.
Dean Transportation services about 10% of the state’s districts and currently has about 150 job openings across Michigan, which is about 10% of its workforce, Dean said.
Buchanan Superintendent Patricia Robinson said the district has taken steps to mitigate the shortage problem such as combining bus routes, though that means longer rides for some students.
The district is searching for new drivers and offering incentives such as paying for all necessary training to rid applicants of any barriers.
“We just have not been successful (finding applicants),” Robinson said.
The district can cover the routes currently -- with the help of Williams -- but will be unable to provide transportation for students in the event that a bus driver gets sick or needs to quarantine from COVID-19 exposure, she said.
“It may even get to a point where we would just have to go remote because we would not have the means to transport our students,” Robinson said. “That’s what we’re facing on a day-to-day basis.
“It’s a critical time right now,” she said.
Buchanan is currently advertising for job openings and offering a $500 signing bonus. But, attracting new drivers -- especially in a pandemic -- has its challenges.
School bus driving is often attractive to older people who have recently retired and are looking for part-time work, Williams said. Those same people are the ones who are most vulnerable to COVID-19 and many don’t want to be around large groups of children, he said.
Tom Zahrt, assistant superintendent for human resources for KRESA, said the RESA’s nine local districts need about 50 more bus drivers and additional substitutes.
Michigan Works! Southwest featured KRESA as its Employer of the Day Wednesday, Jan. 13. The event was held to attract possible applicants to apply to become a bus driver in Kalamazoo County and drew about a dozen people.
Zahrt said KRESA is “pulling out all the stops” to attract candidates to the job.
In the pandemic, as schools consider transitioning back to in-person learning -- or are abruptly closed when cases pop up -- school bus drivers are among the staff who don’t know when they might work again.
KRESA held the virtual job fair in anticipation of many districts returning to in-person learning now that the COVID-19 vaccine has been rolled out.
“It’s tied to when we can get all these educators vaccinated, and that includes bus drivers and food service and custodians and all these support groups,” Zahrt said. “When we get them vaccinated and can get back to in-person learning, then we’re going to have a huge need.”
Dean shares in that optimism for a future need for drivers. His company is encouraging many of the same drivers who left when schools closed to return to the job they previously loved.
“We think it’s a really good job,” Dean said. “It’s not just another job, it’s a career.”
Dean Transportation and many districts across the state offer to pay for training for new drivers and offer other incentives to attract new applicants. School bus drivers are required to have Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) and be at least 18 years old.
Rockford advertises for the job opening using a large banner on a school bus parked in a busy intersection, Shibler said. They also negotiated a higher wage for their drivers.
The job is a good fit for someone who wants part-time work and time off during the holidays and summer, he said.
“We’re trying our best to make the job more attractive,” Shibler said.
Also on MLive:
Call for in-person school, vaccine for teachers top priorities for Michigan schools now
Next in line for vaccines, Michigan teachers are feeling optimistic
What worked in 2020 and what needs work in 2021 for 12 Michigan schools
4% of Michigan adults vaccinated so far; see numbers in your county
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