Director Of Transportation Briefs Baltimore County School Board About Bus Driver Shortages
TOWSON, Md. (WJZ) -- The Director of Transportation briefed the Baltimore County School Board on Tuesday about what is being done to solve the problem of school bus driver shortages.
Baltimore County Councilman David Marks says that he's received more than 50 complaints about transportation since the start of the new school year.
"We need to increase the salary of bus drivers, we need to retain our bus drivers, but we also need to make sure that this is taken care of when school opens next September," Marks said.
The school system tells WJZ that it's actively working to recruit an additional 50 bus drivers and retain the bus drivers they currently have.
"We have a number of driver shortages we could hire immediately," Director of School Transportation Jess Grim said. "But it still wouldn't replace the number of vacancies we have. So right now working on a short staff we're doing the best we can but need to maintain the safety of our practice."
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Baltimore County Schools says one of its challenges is that many of its drivers are in their 60's, and looking toward retirement.
Baltimore County Public Schools also says a contributing factor is that parents are still registering their kids for the school bus and that can cause changes in routes and sometimes delays.
"It's often unpredictable what specific routes are going to be affected which has led to some buses have more students than we'd like," Brandon Oland of Baltimore County Public Schools said.
A new report for County Schools says the district hired 67 new bus drivers for the fiscal year 2019, but lost 66. The report also shows 46 resigned, 16 retired and four were terminated.
Grim says they need more time to come up with a long-term plan.
"I think we need to improve our communication we need to maintain our focus on student safety and we need to make sure as we make changes and as we look to improve our efficiency were taking everything into consideration," Grim said.
For parents like Tracy Evans, however, patience is wearing thin.
"I work in the morning," Evans said. "Either I'm going to be late or I have to spend money that I don't have for somebody to take her."
