Puyallup School District will suspend bus routes amid driver shortage. Here’s the plan
The Puyallup School District will temporarily suspend 10 percent of its bus runs on Nov. 22 as a result of an ongoing bus driver shortage. During the next school board meeting, they will decide if more runs can be temporarily suspended.
In total, 27 bus runs will be temporarily suspended for 24 schools in the district. This includes runs to Aylen Junior High, Sunrise Elementary and Emerald Ridge High School. With about 23,000 students in the district, 1,390 children will be impacted, school district spokesperson Sarah Gillispie told The News Tribune.
“Families ... are asked to plan for an alternative way to transport their child to and from school beginning Nov. 22. The district will re-evaluate the temporary suspension of these routes based on changing conditions with intention to restore suspended bus runs as soon as it is feasible,” the district said in an announcement.
Gillispie said the district will continue working with the Parent-Teacher Association to find “creative solutions” to families impacted by the temporary suspension of bus runs and that the work is “ongoing.”
At the next board meeting on Nov. 15, they will decide if they should modify a district policy regarding the district’s transportation services. If approved, the district can temporarily suspend 10 additional runs or more, which will go into effect on Nov. 29.
District Policy 6600 states that bus rides may be offered to senior high students that live more than 1.5 miles away, junior high students that live more than 1.25 miles away and elementary school students that live more than 1 mile away from school.
Mario Casello, assistant superintendent of operations, proposed to increase the distance requirements during a Nov. 1 school board meeting. Casello proposed to increase the distance for junior high and high school students to 1.75 miles.
“If we were to do that we could free up 15 bus drivers,” Casello said. “We could utilize those 15 drivers, and we could really look at the runs that we know for sure we can get to, and we can get those kids to and from school on time and to and from home on time.”
The district has 128 runs to cover but only has 112 bus drivers on staff. About 10-13 bus drivers are absent per day for personal reasons including but not limited to needing to quarantine, Casello said.
“That puts us at about 100 runs that we really feel confident we can cover on a daily basis,” Casello said. “There’s about 28 runs in there where it’s really a challenge for us.”
The runs that will be temporarily suspended on Nov. 22 were determined after the district looked at runs that transport the fewest students. The runs that have the fewest are “Tier 2” runs, which are runs that bring students to two schools, Casello said during a Nov. 5 school board study session.
Setting up an afternoon hub stop for students in the QUEST program (a program for highly capable students) also helps lighten the number of runs for bus drivers as well, Casello said. Hub stops are certain areas where parents or guardians drop off and pick up their children.
Designated walking routes and additional safety precautions should be established if some runs are paused, Joseph Romero, vice president of the school board, said during the Nov. 1 meeting.
“My son leaves about 25 minutes early to get to school, and it is a concern for us, too, because he’s walking in the dark,” Romero said. “If we’re extending that, (I) just want to make sure students have access to adults along the routes so that they can feel safe.”
School board member Michael Keaton said during the meeting that he does not want to suspend District Policy 6600 altogether, because the policy also ensures students who have a disability, among other things, can have access to school bus transportation.
“If you suspend something, there’s a chance it doesn’t come back,” Keaton said. “We want to be able to provide quality service … we just have to find those bus drivers.”
Students have been between 30 minutes to three hours late to their destination whether it is to or from school, Casello said during the meeting. Other school districts have already decided to pause or suspend runs, he said.
The district has reached out to local car dealerships and rental services to see if they can lease some vans for the rest of the school year so those with a regular driver license can pick up and drop off small groups of students, Casello said during the Nov. 5 study session.
“Our transportation team is really at the edge,” Casello said at the Nov. 1 meeting. “They’ve done everything they can, they’ve looked at every possible possibility … the reality is we just don’t have enough drivers and this is not a Puyallup School District issue. This is a national issue.”
This story was originally published November 6, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
