School districts offering incentives to attract and keep bus drivers

POCATELLO — Local school districts are working hard to come up with creative ways to attract and keep bus drivers.

Officials in many regional districts say that they have experienced a shortage of drivers since coming back from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There seems to be a lot less people wanting to work or seeking jobs, and I’m not sure why,” says Melissa Nichols, the transportation director for the Blackfoot School District 55. “It seems to be that way throughout any of the professions.”

The shortage seems to be impacting districts both large and small. Ralph Frost, the director of transportation for Idaho Falls School District 91, says even as people in our area are returning to in-person work, his department has received fewer applications this year than last.

“I think there’s a lot of jobs out there, so people have a lot of opportunities to pick different things — and I think school bus driving is intimidating,” Frost says.

The problem isn’t limited to eastern Idaho — or even to a particular career. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently surveyed people as to why they weren’t returning to work. According to the Chamber, some 33% of women said they had become caregivers to children or high-risk individuals, and that made it hard to return to the workforce. Another 28% of men said their industry had not rebounded enough for it to be worth them returning.

Other components listed by the survey included low pay, concerns about exposure to COVID-19, and workers choosing to continue education or training to better their career options.

But whatever the exact cause, getting drivers into the seats of their buses continues to be a challenge locally.

Misty Wocelka, the transportation director for the Fremont County School District 215, told EastIdahoNews.com that her district had to send reverse robocalls to let people know how desperate they were for school bus drivers earlier this summer.

Bonneville Joint School District 93 transportation director Pam Cripps says they still have to hire five new bus drivers before the school year starts. Last year, she said people in the district’s mechanic shop and transportation office had to pick up routes to fill in gaps. She said the district might be forced to do the same this year.

“(The public) is gonna have to be patient,” Cripps says. “We might have to consolidate some routes or we might be running a little late.”

Frost says District 91 is expecting to start the year with a shortage.

“We have hired quite a few this week. They won’t be trained by the beginning of the school year, but it will be close,” he says.

There are a few districts that have managed to fill their bus driver quotas.

“We’ve done great with our buses,” said Shawna Warner, transportation office manager for the Madison County School District 321. “We’ve worked really hard this summer to bring on some drivers.”

Madison hired 12 new drivers this year, bringing them to full capacity. The same is true in Blackfoot and Fremont school districts.

Every district EastIdahoNews.com spoke with said they have had to increase their incentives since the start of the pandemic to attract new drivers. Some of those incentives include sign-on bonuses, pay increases, free CDL training and a flexible schedule.

Nichols said bus driving is great for people who want to work the same hours as their children in order to spend more time with them.

Some districts are also getting creative in order to keep the drivers they already have. In Pocatello/Chubbuck School District 25 there was a concern that drivers might leave because they couldn’t get full-time benefits. The district recently implemented full-day kindergarten, which negated the need for a midday kindergarten route.

“Because we didn’t have a midday kindergarten route anymore, we were really concerned some of our bus drivers wouldn’t be able to have full-time benefits,” District spokeswoman Courtney Fisher says. “So we invited those who want to remain full-time to come and work and fill some of the paraprofessional needs in our classrooms.”

The district hopes that by giving the full-time option they will be able to attract more applicants as well.

“We’re not immune from the rest of the world’s hiring challenges that everyone seems to be experiencing right now,” Fisher says. “It’s a wonderful place to work, and I think that we’ve really tried to show that by being creative and by incentivizing through some of those programs we’ve done with these bus drivers.”

A number of school districts in our area are still looking for bus drivers, substitute teachers, custodians, paraprofessionals, and substitute bus drivers. If you are interested, head over to your district’s website to apply.