Kids’ lives disrupted by bus driver shortage

Published 10:59 pm Monday, June 18, 2007

As the procession of buses pulls out from Beverly Elementary School in Lynnwood, some students are left at the curb.

The youngsters will simply have to wait, as they have done before.

The scene is increasingly commonplace in school districts across Snohomish County as a shortage of bus drivers has transportation leaders scrambling for replacements.

And the situation could get worse before it gets better.

“I’ve been in this business for 35 years, 20 in Edmonds, and this is the worst I’ve ever seen it,” said Reg Clarke, transportation director for the 20,000-student Edmonds School District.

On any given day, as many as 24 routes can run late in his district because bus drivers have to cover extra routes, Clarke said.

Delays can run from a few minutes to half an hour.

Late-arriving students trickling into the classroom can disrupt the beginning of the school day. At the end of the day, late buses can throw off family schedules for baseball practice and piano lessons.

“It’s difficult on families and it’s also a challenge for the schools,” said Lynne Behrendt, the Beverly principal.

At Marysville, the shortage of bus drivers has gotten so bad that the district is often relying on district mechanics to drive routes. Several districts routinely advertise for bus drivers in parent newsletters and reader boards outside of schools.

Transportation directors blame the shortage on several factors, but mainly a robust economy gobbling up potential employees.

School districts also are expected to do more.

A federal law, the McKinney-Vento Act, was strengthened five years ago to make it easier for homeless students to get transportation to schools.

That means dozens of students in Snohomish County are crisscrossing school district boundaries in buses or vans.

The bottom line is the supply of qualified drivers doesn’t match the demand, officials said.

Traditionally, moms whose children were in school gravitated to the bus-driving jobs, Clarke said.

However, with the cost-of-living on the rise in Puget Sound area, many moms are taking year-round, full-time jobs to pay the bills, Clarke said.

“It’s a much smaller audience to target than it once was,” Clarke said.

Increasingly, school districts are turning to retirees who don’t need to work year-round.

Other districts are feeling the pinch.

“I think it’s getting worse and worse every year,” said Joe Legare, transportation supervisor for the Marysville School District. “I have been here 27 years and every year it gets a little tougher to recruit.”

Like Edmonds, Marysville has had to make double runs, leaving some students waiting at school while others are driven home.

Marysville also has had to consolidate bus routes and increase the number of students on buses with mechanics often pressed into bus-driving duty.

Legare knows the situation could become more difficult.

The district has two new schools – an elementary and high school – that will open over the next five years, adding routes and the need for more drivers.

Lake Stevens School District faces a similar conundrum: a new opening next fall and a thin roster of substitute drivers.

“I am a supervisor and I have hopped on a school bus more this year than I have over the last 10,” said Sheila Winters, transportation director for the Lake Stevens and Granite Falls school districts’ bus cooperative.

Winters is down to eight substitute drivers in Lake Stevens and many of those could end up with permanent positions in the fall.

“That would leave my sub pool empty,” she said.

When Mukilteo School District transportation director Denny Armstrong gets a call from a parent concerned by a late-arriving child, he explains the shortage and makes a sales pitch for them to become a bus driver.

He doesn’t get much interest in the job openings, but his spiel does promote understanding, he said.

Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.