Bus driver shortage causes delays, mostly in western Henrico

On the first day of school in Henrico County, families reported hours-long delays for school bus pickups.

Henrico County Public Schools is facing about 100 vacancies for drivers — a number that has remained unchanged for the past few weeks.

Bus drivers ran 513 double routes on Wednesday, according to Lenny Pritchard, HCPS chief of operations. The majority of the double routes happened in the Three Chopt and Tuckahoe districts, which have experienced the longest delays due in part to their high populations.

“It was fast and furious,” Pritchard said in an interview. “[Drivers] did a great job to try to get kids to school and get them back home again. The first day is always hectic for all school divisions, because there's so much competing traffic.”

Historically, more parents drive their kids on the first day of school, which causes backups in school parking lots.

While there were still delays on the second day of school due to the shortage of about 100 bus drivers, the situation had improved some by Thursday.

“We know we’ve got some work to do, we’ve got some improvement areas,” Pritchard said. “We're getting there. It's the first time we've had to do this on a full scale in two years, just like everybody else.”

In an effort to attract more drivers, HCPS announced a 15% pay increase for its lowest-paid drivers on Sept. 1. Starting pay for drivers with no experience is now $17.15 an hour compared with the old rate of $14.91 an hour, bringing HCPS closer to matching the pay rates of neighboring divisions, which all are vying for the same pool of candidates. Drivers who already make $17.15 will receive a 2.37% pay increase.

The district is facing its largest school bus driver shortage in more than a decade. After schools shut down last March, many part-time drivers, who are not under contract, left their school district jobs.

HCPS spokesman Andy Jenks said that the school division expects that the delays will be minimized as families and staff settle into the new year.

“We’ll get there, and we ask for patience and grace along the way,” Jenks said.

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Anna Bryson is the Henrico Citizen's education reporter and a Report for America corps member. Make a tax-deductible donation to support her work, and RFA will match it dollar for dollar.