Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The school bus driver shortage continues to be a local and national problem. For Buffalo Public Schools, there was a committee meeting weekly just to come up with solutions to combat this issue. With school continuing to near, where does the district stand?
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Dr. Tonja Williams, the new Superintendent of Buffalo Public Schools mentioned in her State of the Schools address at City Honors School on Friday that they are continuing to look for bus drivers and are calling on the community to ask around.
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"Please message us if you know of people who are looking for good, viable jobs. We in the Buffalo Public Schools are hiring, so please send them our way. Speaking of buses, it is important to know that our community is doing all that we can to address a national bus driver shortage crisis. It is not a Buffalo Public School issue. It is not a First Student issue. It is a national crisis and so we put together a diverse committee of stakeholders to brainstorm and to come up with some plans so that our children are not standing on corners waiting for buses for extended periods of time. None of us want that to happen," said Dr. Tonja Williams.
"Despite our efforts to increase hiring more drivers by increasing wages, and even offering signing bonuses, we are still not where we were prior to COVID," said the superintendent.
Dr. Williams says that they have been proactive in advising the parents to be prepared for possible delays and are asking parents to download an app, FirstView, which tracks school buses and when they are expected to arrive, "It is my hope that that will alleviate some of their anxiousness."
The district is also addressing children who may not be picked up from school during the normal hours.
"We want to make sure that we have adequate staff prepared to supervise the children. In the afternoon we have ordered, nutritious, healthy and I'm hoping good tasting snacks for the children who may be staying later," Dr. Williams said.
"We are looking to purchase bus passes for parents who may be willing to bring their children to school. We have been working with our Erie County Clerk, Mickey Kearns, who is prepared to work with our staff to offer test preparation, so that folks who are interested in becoming bus drivers have the opportunity to prepare for, what I am told is, a very complicated and difficult exam that you have to take in order to get your CDL license and finally, we are continuing to explore piloting the opportunity to reimburse parents with a mileage stipend for if they transport their own children to and from school."
The superintendent also says that she's been in communication with parents via robo calls, which says she will do twice a week to keep parents informed on any new or changing information, as well as updating the school's website.
The school continues to looks for look for substitute teachers as well, applications can be found here.