Bus drivers respond to shortage crisis affecting the Pajaro Valley
jose.romo
WATSONVILLE, Calif. (KION-TV) — The Pajaro Valley Unified School District is getting the wheels rolling. Despite their continuing struggle with a bus driver shortage, district staff remain committed to getting students to school. Five weeks into the current school year and PVUSD continues struggling with a bus driver shortage.
“It took maybe about a month, and I was able to get my license and start driving, so it was great.” Raymond Alvarez says after working as a basketball coach for quite some time in the district, he felt he could do more to help. Just two weeks ago, he was able to pass his final test certifying him as a bus driver.
“When I started here in February we were short 19 drivers and we had a couple that retired, we brought on a couple drivers, but we’re still, we’re now 20-21 drivers short,” says Sarah Lemke, Director of Transportation. “So it’s a struggle every day to make sure that we cover all the routes and the kids to school.”
For Raymond, being a bus driver is more than just his job. He understands that it’s balancing relationships with both the students and their parents. “We’re taking other people’s kids to school so we have to go through an extensive background check. We have to do drug screenings. We have do all this before we can even start the training, right? And that’s a big thing because you don’t want anybody driving your kids,” he adds.
Lemke says she has committed to bringing change to the department in hopes of addressing the ongoing shortage. She adds that they are no longer canceling routes.
“This year, I let my staff know I would rather students be late and we go pick them up after we’ve dropped the others off and get them to school than cancel a route. I just don’t feel that we should be canceling routes. We need to get our kids there. Even if they’re late.”
Training to become a bus driver includes 20 hours of classroom instruction followed by another 20 hours behind the wheel.
Lemke adds, “If you have any accidents or DUIs or anything, obviously, we don’t really want you transporting our students. We wanna make sure they’re safe.”
She adds that starting Monday, they are expecting 36 people to begin the bus driving training program. She understands many of them might weed out on the first day as the training is rigorous and safety focused, but she hopes this program helps address the onging staffing issues.