Some Green Country School Districts Still Facing Bus Driver Shortages

Some Green Country school districts are still dealing with bus driver shortages roughly three months into the school year. For example, Broken Arrow currently has 13 openings for bus drivers while Jenks has 10 openings.

Each bus holds somewhere between 30 to 60 kids each, meaning that anywhere from 300 to 780 are impacted by this shortage. This also means that these districts sometimes have to get creative to make sure that they get their kids to and from school on time.

"Right now, because we are short, what's happening is every mechanic drives, every office staff drives. Sometimes we do have to have buses go back to pick up another route to be able to get those kids home safe, which then makes those routes run behind schedule which makes them late getting home," Tammie White, Broken Arrow Public Schools' Transportation Manager said.

Districts have even considered consolidating some routes where fewer kids are riding the bus to help alleviate some of these issues. On top of that, having people who don't normally drive the routes can also make the buses run behind schedule.

"When you have a mechanic or other driver that's covering a route, sometime those routes will run late to school by 5 to 10, 15 minutes because they don't know that area. That's why we need to get drivers to be able to be here to drive these routes. That way they know the routes, and the kids will get there on time," White said.

Not every district is currently dealing with extreme bus driver shortages, however. Union Public Schools, for example, only has one opening for bus drivers. The district credits its sign-on bonuses as well as a slight pay increase as a couple of reasons for its lack of driver openings.