Critical Bus Driver Shortage Prompts Pasco Schools To Reach Out To National Guard

PASCO COUNTY, FL — Faced with a critical shortage of school bus drivers, Pasco County School officials went so far as to reach out to the Florida National Guard for help.

Last month, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker activated 250 members of the Massachusetts National Guard to drive school buses.

However, the guard can't be activated in Florida to drive buses because there is no official state of emergency.

"My understanding is the National Guard only comes in when there’s a state of emergency. I think there’s an emergency, but it's not an official declared state of emergency," Pasco County Schools Superintendent Kurt Browning said.

In a last-ditch effort to solve the bus driver shortage, which as resulted in hundreds of students arriving late to school, Browning is proposing that the county change the bell times for schools starting in January.

"This solution was not our first choice," Browning said. "It will have a district wide impact on families, including those who do not rely on school buses for transportation."

Browning said a shortage of bus drivers is a perennial problem for school districts around the country due to the intermittent work hours and low pay scale.

The average bus driver earns $14.41 an hour, according to Indeed.

"But this year the shortage is worse than ever," he said.

The coronavirus pandemic has made it more difficult to recruit new drivers due to the high risk of exposure to COVID-19.

A National School Transportation Association said transportation workers are second only to those in the food and agriculture sector for risk of exposure to COVID-19.

As a result, a survey by the NSTA reported that more than 80 percent of school districts have altered service, and 51 percent describe their staffing issue as "severe" or "desperate."

"The result of this acute shortage is that many of our students are late arriving at school in the morning, which results in loss of instructional time," Browning said. "And they are late arriving home in the afternoon or early evening, which puts a strain on families."

He said the school district has tried a number of strategies to resolve the problem, including financial incentives, an all-hands-on-deck approach, job fairs and waiving the fees for background checks.

"Those strategies have helped but have not solved the problem," he said. "Chronically late students have remained the norm. This is unacceptable."

He said changing the start times for schools will allow the district to increase the number of routes for each bus driver.

“We can spread the drivers out and use fewer drivers to carry the same number of kids," Browning said.

Browning said changes to bell times is not unusual.

"We do it every year," he said. "What makes this different is we are changing bell times mid-year. This will have a far-reaching impact on students and staff. But we cannot continue to have a large group of students who are chronically late arriving at school."

Under the proposed plan, schools will start at 7:10, 8:10, 9:10 and 10:10 a.m. The latter start time would have students being dismissed at 4:20 p.m.

The Pasco County School Board will allow public comment on the issue during its regularly scheduled meeting on Nov. 2.