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The Henrico School Board chambers, which are often almost entirely empty on the audience side during meetings, were filled with bus drivers on Thursday evening.
Brenda Riddell, a Henrico school bus driver of nine years, addressed the board at public comment, and asked members to walk a day in her shoes.
“We're overwhelmed, we're tired, we're fatigued, we're pushed, we're stressed, we're exhausted,” Riddell said. “Would you put your child on a plane with a pilot under these conditions? Or would you put your child in the taxi with the driver under these conditions? No, you would not because it's unsafe.”
Several other long-time Henrico County Public Schools bus drivers submitted written public comments regarding paperwork, enforcing assigned seats, pay and exhaustion from running double routes.
“Something needs to be done to relieve this ticking time bomb of pressure on HCPS drivers,” wrote one person who identified herself as a 13-year Henrico school bus driver.
Searching for solutions
At the Henrico School Board work session on Thursday, HCPS Chief of Operations Lenny Pritchard said that there are still about 100 vacancies for drivers. But there are about 50 candidates in different stages of the hiring process — seven drivers are finishing class, 14 drivers started class last week, three student drivers will begin class Sept. 29, another 10 are scheduled for the Oct. 13 class, two drivers have completed the requirements and 16 candidates have been interviewed since last week.
Another bus driver job fair will be held on Oct. 16 at Hermitage High School from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“As we bring on additional staff, it will decrease double runs and improve our pickup and drop off times,” Pritchard said.
If 50 spots were filled and the division was down to only 50 vacancies, that would be on par with the typical pre-COVID situation in Henrico County.
During the first week of school, the transportation team recorded more than 500 double runs daily. The team has worked to reduce these to 236 double runs and 15 triple runs. Most of the double runs occur in the Three Chopt and Tuckahoe districts, due to higher ridership numbers and higher driver vacancies.
But even with the improvements from the first week of school, there are still some routes with scheduled pickup times that are after the school day has already begun.
While school officials work to improve the driver shortage problem, they’re also working on solutions to help improve pickup and drop off times by reviewing routes and ridership numbers. Some of these potential solutions include consolidating buses that are not being fully utilized, eliminating stops that yield no students, adjusting the bell schedule, and adding minivans to exceptional education routes (which can be driven by non-CDL licensed drivers) in order to use the larger buses in daily routes.
In August, new hiring bonuses were announced that award $1,000 to new drivers with no experience, a $2,000 bonus to new drivers who already have a CDL license, and a $3,000 bonus to those who already have S & P endorsements (which allow drivers to drive school buses and passenger vehicles, respectively).
As other Virginia school divisions raised pay in order to compete with other localities for drivers, HCPS announced in September a 15% pay increase for its lowest-paid drivers.
But while pay increases are attracting some new drivers, long-timers are miffed that new hires will be making more than what they made for years.
Communication, seating chart issues
A bus app that HCPS began to acquire in July, which would allow parents the ability to track their child's bus in real time, has been delayed due to GPS hardware problems.
“Even if the app were fully available this would make our current struggles even more challenging due to the thousands of changes that we are still working through,” Pritchard said.
When the app is ready, Pritchard said he wants to roll it out slowly, starting in a zone with less transportation problems. In the meantime, the division will continue to use SchoolMessenger to notify parents and guardians of pickup and drop-off times.
Among the biggest problems for bus drivers is seating charts. According to board member Kristi Kinsella, who represents the Brookland District, there are inconsistencies with how different schools expect drivers to enforce or report seating arrangements.
“...That takes irritation for our bus drivers to a whole new level,” Kinsella said. “The fact that they're doing something that really doesn't seem to matter but yet the seating charts really do matter because they're part of our mitigation strategy.”
One bus driver who submitted a written public comment described the seating charts as “impossible piles of paperwork,” and complained that the protocol varies between schools.
"We are asking students names, making sure they know their assigned seat, checking that off the list," Riddell said on Thursday. "All this is being done in the middle of busy roads during rush hour traffic while having papers on your left leg... your right leg with the names of the kids, and then you're using your trash can as a file cabinet just to make sure your papers aren't all over the bus."
Cashwell said that due to the inconsistency of which kids ride with which driver, some school administrators have chosen to take a photograph of the seating in order to know who is sitting where on which day.
“We're sending bus drivers back out to run routes that don't even know the routes, they don't know the kids per se," Pritchard said. "They're just doubling back to help out when they can."
The practice of taking a photograph of seating was a creative response to the challenge, Cashwell 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.
