The need for bus drivers has grown so dire in Durango School District 9-R – six positions open out of 22 routes – that mechanics and district administrators have put down their tools or computers to grab a set of keys to help.
And the problem is not unique to Durango’s school district. A Head Start program in Ignacio has discontinued its three routes for a lack of drivers. Bayfield School District has three substitute driver positions open, and the city of Durango Transit is seeking three part-time drivers.
“It’s not just a local problem, it’s a nationwide problem,” said Patrick Davis, commercial driver’s license trainer for Bayfield. “I think it’s because of the amount of responsibility. A lot of people don’t qualify, and the hours are tough – early in the morning and late afternoon.”
What people may not recognize, 9-R Assistant Superintendent Victor Figueroa said, is how important school bus driving is and how rewarding the job can be.
“Most families interact more with classified staff – bus drivers and custodians who are also crossing guards,” he said. “They see kids first thing in the morning and see how they’re doing. If they have concerns about a kid, they communicate with the schools.”
Gordon Baxter has been driving a Florida Mesa Elementary School route for about seven years, with a route that averages 105 miles per day.
“The kids are the best part,” he said. “But I’m definitely aware all the time that this is not like hauling sand or lumber. You’ve got a very precious cargo, and everyone’s depending on us to get them to and from school safely.”
Baxter had worked in construction before driving a bus.
“This doesn’t have the ups and downs of construction, and it has insurance, which construction doesn’t have, and the possibility of a retirement as well,” he said.
Add in good vacations – Thanksgiving, winter and spring breaks and summers off – and many drivers find it a sweet deal, 9-R spokeswoman Julie Popp said.
Having mechanics drive routes challenges 9-R’s ability to keep its bus fleet on the road.
On Oct. 26, Durango School District 9-R had to cancel a bus route for Florida Mesa Elementary School students because mechanics had been so busy driving routes, Popp said. The parents of 30 students had to scramble to get their kids to school after being notified less than an hour before school start time. That came just 12 days after two different routes were delayed between 35 and 55 minutes after school, also because of mechanical difficulties.
“We were in a similar spot last year, when we were beginning to start cutting routes,” said 9-R Assistant Superintendent Victor Figueroa, who has been driving some buses to help fill in the gaps, about the shortage. They may be facing similar decisions this year if applications don’t increase.
The Southern Ute Community Action Programs Head Start has not been able to bus the students on its three routes for 18 months.
“Southern Ute Head Start has, in the past, provided up to three bus routes for children attending our program,” said Eileen Wasserbach, executive director of SUCAP. “Because our target area includes a region that can have homes as distant as 20 miles from our center, this is a service that really helps families assure their children get to school.”
Even those organizations that are staffed for the moment aren’t taking it for granted.
“So far, everything’s in place,” said Ignacio School District Superintendent Rocco Fuschetto. “But we’re always looking for bus drivers.”
SUCAP’s Road Runner public transportation routes connecting Ignacio and Bayfield with Durango and Ignacio to Aztec as well as Durango to Grand Junction are doing OK on drivers right now, said Peter Tregillus, programs developer.
“But we went four straight weekends where we had to cut back on Dial-A-Ride for Ignacio,” he said about the program that provides rides in and around Ignacio.
What’s the solution? Everyone is looking for something beyond what they’re offering now – paid training and benefits for full-time drivers, they said.
“Our attrition isn’t around dissatisfaction with the job,” Figueroa said, “but people retire or have health issues and have to step down.”
It’s just getting the right people in the door to start that’s the challenge, he said.
abutler@durangoherald.com
