LANCASTER — Antelope Valley Schools Transportation Agency is in need of bus drivers as the agency’s member districts prepare to welcome students back to campuses on a limited capacity in the next couple of weeks.
The student transportation agency serves Antelope Valley Union High School District, Lancaster School District and Westside Union School District.
The agency is down about 40 drivers since March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced school campuses statewide to shutdown and districts shifted to distance learning.
Some former employees moved out of the area, some retired and others left for health reasons.
“We’ve had some of everything,” AVSTA CEO Morris Fuselier said Thursday in a telephone interview. “We’ve got some longterm injury and illnesses, but we’re down a bunch of drivers.”
Even prior to pandemic, the agency had driver shortages. The agency’s bus drivers have been running food delivery routes. They have also been running special education routes for AV Union High School District and Westside Union School District, Fuselier said.
“We’ve been running a considerable, here lately, a considerable number of routes,” he said. “But we’re still not running up at the rate we were running before.”
Bus drivers have not made as much money on their contracts over the past year due to the pandemic.
“Even though they’ve been getting paid, they’ve really been getting paid on minimal contracts,” Fuselier said. “After a year of that I’m sure it’s financially tough, so they’re looking to go out and get a job they can make a little bit more money doing.”
The agency will start transporting students again in about two weeks as the three member districts return with modified schedules.
“Our contracts are going to be pretty big once we get that going,” Fuselier said.
Not only is the agency short drivers, buses will be limited to half-capacity.
“Everybody is going to get plenty, plenty of work,” Fuselier said.
The agency brought drivers back last August on a cohort system where drivers rotated through three groups. All drivers returned after the first of the year. Drivers have transported special education students and delivered food. Some drivers are driving empty buses to help maintain the vehicles.
“We’ve got electrical buses that need to be driven on a regular basis so we’re out driving those,” Fuselier said. “We’re just trying to keep the fleet in shape so that when everybody calls up and says, ‘Hey, you know what, we want to start school next week,’ we’re going to be ready.”
The agency is getting ready to start a driver training class within the next couple weeks.
“They get paid while they’re training,” Fuselier said.
The driver training class last two weeks. It consists of 40 hours of classroom work with eight hours a day over one week. The second week applicants will spend a minimum of 20 hours in the field learning how to drive a bus.
Prospective drivers must be at least 18 years old, and have a good driving record and no felony convictions. All applicants are required to submit a K4 DMV printout (10-year driving record) with each completed application.
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April 04, 2021 at 06:00PM
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