Boone County Schools recently held an open house to fill vacancies in its transportation department.
The school system is the third-largest district in the Commonwealth. Bob Barrix, director of transportation for Boone County Schools, said they take around 85% of the district’s 21,000 students to and from school daily, and he expects more parents will send their kids on the bus this year due to high gas prices.
Interested in becoming a bus driver for Boone County Schools?
In order for transportation to return to normal, the district needs to hire 76 drivers. In a normal year, Barrix said the department trains between 30 and 40 new drivers, retaining “about 90%” of them. According to Director of Safety and Training Helen Cottingim, the district trained about 24 new faces last year, which was “not a good year,” Barrix said.
Even with a full staff, district leaders said up to 8% of drivers call in sick on a daily basis, meaning between 23 and 25 routes have to be filled. Combine that with a bus driver shortage, and Barrix said that’s how buses run late by 30 minutes or more. That’s just the morning routes. He said the deck gets shuffled again around 1 p.m. for afternoon bus rides.
Barrix recently spoke to a group of Boone County parents and residents about its transportation needs, asking members of the public to spread the word about an open house the district is held on Friday in an effort to fill its open positions.
Cottingim said the district provides in-house training to meet state and federal standards, and drivers have 45 days to complete training and testing needed for a Commercial Driver’s License approved for piloting a bus. Due to the training period, the district is poised to start another year with fewer drivers than it needs, but Cottingim said they “are always training” new drivers, which means there is no cut-off date for applicants.
She added that potential drivers are often unsure whether they can pilot a bus or will like the job. Cottingim said open houses allow curious residents to find out if it’s right for them.
Superintendent Matthew Turner was present for the meeting. He said he remembers his own bus driver from elementary and middle school, adding that residents who become drivers will be “the first face … and the last face they see each day” on their way to and from school.
