{"id":14142,"date":"2024-10-30T14:50:42","date_gmt":"2024-10-30T14:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/?p=14142"},"modified":"2024-10-30T15:28:53","modified_gmt":"2024-10-30T15:28:53","slug":"half-the-days-we-have-no-driver-bus-driver-shortage-leaves-families-scrambling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/10\/30\/half-the-days-we-have-no-driver-bus-driver-shortage-leaves-families-scrambling\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Half the days we have no driver’: Bus driver shortage leaves families scrambling"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWho\u2019s not going to their job this morning?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a question Jane Dornemann has asked one too many times.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dornemann, mother of a Durham School of the Arts sixth grader, works as an end-of-life doula and writer. Her husband, Colin, is an engineering specialist for HVAC systems.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On Oct. 9, the couple was forced to decide which parent should miss work to drive their son August to school.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Dornemann awoke that morning, she received a notification through Edulog Parent Portal App, the school transportation tracking app, that her son\u2019s bus would be about 40 minutes late. Typically, his bus arrives at around 7:40, though with the delay the exact arrival time was impossible to know.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dornemann\u2019s client would be in hospice at 8 a.m. Her husband had to leave for work at 7 a.m.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ultimately, Dornemann\u2019s husband missed work to drive August to school.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI would say for many of us, at least half the days we have no driver. There\u2019s no bus at all,\u201d Dornemann said about her son\u2019s bus route.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since the beginning of the school year, DPS has faced an <\/span>ongoing<\/span><\/a> bus driver shortage. Two months in, the problem persists.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In an email message sent to parents and staff in mid-October, the district acknowledged the challenge of transporting students to and from school.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe remain firmly committed to this very important goal,\u201d the message read. \u201cBut admittedly, we continue to experience significant challenges in being as consistent with timely service as we would like to be.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Also in the email, the district asked parents to search for different methods to get their child to school.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen possible, we ask that you find an alternate solution for getting your child to school. While we know this is an impossibility for many families\u2026we ask parents to take their children to school,\u201d the message read.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So far, the district has taken steps to tackle the transportation challenges. The school system received permission from the North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles to reduce the driver training timeline, school administrators have been asked to accommodate bus-related tardiness and absence, and the district is working with Edulog representatives to better train drivers how to use the portal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet despite these measures, morning chaos like the Dornemanns’ has become familiar to many parents.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Heather Banta\u2019s daughter, Reine, is a sixth grader at Githens Middle School. Like the Dornemanns, Banta leaves for work early each morning, a schedule that conflicts with driving her daughter to school every day. Banta\u2019s work day is supposed to start at 8 a.m., but school drop-off for Reine is at 8:30 a.m. For Banta, the bus is essential.<\/span><\/p>\n

A first-time bus rider, Reine waited excitedly with her mother and a group of other families at their assigned stop on the first day of school. However, when another parent said the location and timing of the bus stop had changed, Banta was unsure what to do.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe bus was about 45 minutes late at this point, we\u2019re calling DPS transportation, trying to figure out if it\u2019s coming.\u201d Banta said. \u201cAnd then we see it coming up the street, and the kids are jumping up and down with excitement, and the bus just goes sailing right past us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Banta ended up driving her daughter to school \u2014 as well as another child whose parents were unable to wait with her at the stop.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At a September work session, superintendent Anthony Lewis <\/span>said<\/span><\/a> that transportation services may be less responsive as 10 members of transportation\u2019s administrative staff were filling in as drivers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On Sept. 18, Banta wrote an email to the school board members expressing her concerns, and complaining about \u201clack of communication from DPS Transportation.\u201d In an email reply, board member Bettina Umstead thanked Banta for sharing her experience and copied the superintendent and Todd LoFrese, the interim chief operating officer. Banta has not received any additional response.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Since the first month of the school year, Banta said that Reine\u2019s bus has generally been more consistent. Just last week, though, Banta received an Edulog notification that her daughter\u2019s bus would be 45 minutes late. Banta rearranged work meetings and drove Reine and another neighborhood child to school. Turns out, the bus arrived at the stop on time with no delay, another parent informed Banta later that morning.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most DPS students \u2014\u00a022,732 out of 31,165 total \u2014 ride the school bus, requiring 165 daily bus drivers. Between August and September, rider requests increased by nearly <\/span>5,000<\/span><\/a> students, according to Lewis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the message to parents earlier this month, the district said it is short about 30 bus drivers. The same estimate was provided to The 9th Street Journal in September by Mathew Palmer, senior executive director of school planning and operation services.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A shortage of bus drivers is a nationwide dilemma for school systems, a problem that worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. An analysis by <\/span>USA Today<\/span><\/a> found that every state in the country experienced one instance of a significant school bus driver shortage in 2023.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In North Carolina, the neighboring Wake County school system has encountered similar challenges. Last year, Wake <\/span>announced<\/span><\/a> that 2,000 students would need to find their own transportation to school because 17 bus routes were missing drivers. The shortage has lessened since then, with Wake schools <\/span>saying<\/span><\/a> they will be able to cover all bus routes this school year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

School bus drivers in Durham are paid between $19 and $28 per hour based on experience, a rate competitive with that of neighboring districts. Wake County schools increased starting bus driver pay to $20 this year, the same pay rate for drivers in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. In 2022, Orange County Schools increased starting pay to $17.<\/span><\/p>\n

At a school board meeting on Oct. 24, Christy Patterson, vice president of the Durham Association of Educators, called on the school board to listen to drivers\u2019 frustrations.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201dYou have to listen when\u2026they tell you about the disrespect and favoritism they have to put up with,\u201d Patterson said. \u201cThe powerlessness they feel when they are mistreated by supervisors, the frustration when they have to drive 20 minutes across town in between routes or when they\u2019re supposed to drop kids off in an unsafe stop or when there are behavior issues on the bus and they receive no support.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Durham school board planned to discuss the ongoing transportation issues at last Thursday\u2019s meeting. However, the presentation was delayed until early November.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In a <\/span>Powerpoint <\/span><\/a>presentation released ahead of the meeting, DPS administrators listed six tactics to address the transportation issues. The approaches ranged from a \u201cdual employment\u201d strategy \u2014\u00a0where some new employees will be required to obtain a school bus driver license \u2014 to establishing a 1.5-mile walk zone around certain schools.<\/span><\/p>\n

During public comment at Thursday\u2019s meeting, Megan DeLuca, a parent of three DPS students, criticized the proposed tactics.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe solutions that are proposed in the slide deck are at worst, just out of touch\u2026at best they\u2019re just too small,\u201d said DeLuca.<\/span><\/p>\n

The driver shortage has taken an emotional toll on students like Reine and August. Banta said her daughter has been anxious over the transportation issues while Dornemann said her son has been \u201cdepressed by it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On Monday, August\u2019s bus was two-and-a-half hours late in the morning and did not run in the afternoon.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He did not go to school.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWho\u2019s not going to their job this morning?\u201d It\u2019s a question Jane Dornemann has asked one too many times.\u00a0 Dornemann, mother of a Durham School…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":14144,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[269],"class_list":["post-14142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-schools","tag-the-9th-street-journal","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n'Half the days we have no driver': Bus driver shortage leaves families scrambling - 9th Street Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/10\/30\/half-the-days-we-have-no-driver-bus-driver-shortage-leaves-families-scrambling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"'Half the days we have no driver': Bus driver shortage leaves families scrambling - 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