RANDOLPH COUNTY — A pilot program will seek to remedy a mounting transportation issue in Randolph County Schools this fall.
School board members voted unanimously at their regular June meeting to approve a tentative tiered-bus pilot plan for the 2022-2023 school year. Board members expressed an understanding of staffing issues and asking several employees to perform double duty.
RCS transportation director Wendy Anderson explained to school board members that immediate action is necessary to prepare to address unsustainable working conditions by the fall. Randolph County runs 141 buses and currently operates with 44 full-time vacancies, as the system has lost many drivers to attrition.
“That’s a whole lot of sub drivers out there right now,” Anderson said. “The schools are doing a fantastic job covering, but we’re killing them. … We were running closer to 164 [buses]. We cut back to about 155 right before COVID. Now we’re down to 141. Truthfully, we should be running more buses, but we do not have anybody to drive them.”
Long routes are proving especially challenging for staff members who Anderson said “will do anything” to make sure students arrive safely at school. Route times are currently more than two hours in many places throughout the county. According to Anderson, more than half of the county’s students ride buses.
“We are picking up before 5:30 in the morning and we are dropping off at 5:30 in the evening,” Anderson said. “My first bus rolls out at 10 minutes until 5 every morning. My last bus parks right at 6 o’clock every evening. They’re doing the best they can do. Folks are just doing the best they can right now, but that’s tough on kids. That’s a long, long day.”
Several different options were discussed, including continuous hours for employees; combining middle and high school students on one bus, tiered middle and high school buses; doubling bus loads; increasing community stops; creating a sub rotation list; tiered elementary and middle school buses. Ultimately, the board hopes the approved measure, which will combine students from elementary and middle schools, decrease the number of buses and shorten ride times, will be a start to fixing some of the ongoing problems.
“I think it’s important to remember that we are asking bus drivers to do things we don’t ask teachers to do,” Anderson said. “We have 60, 70 kids on some of those buses. We give them a 26,000-pound vehicle that turns like a boat and a mirror to look over their shoulder to keep these kids [safe].”
Staff writer Daniel Kennedy can be reached at 336-888-3578, or at dkennedy@atnonline.net.
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