Some Little Cypress-Mauriceville High School students are getting to school late because the school district has a shortage of bus drivers. Assistant Superintendent Greg Perry said some drivers are doubling up but three high school routes are still late.
“They are still arriving late, but it is getting better each day,” Perry said. “The tardy bell rings at 8:15 and the last bus arrived about 8:35 on the first day (Monday).” On Thursday, the last bus arrived at 8:2
The school is not recording the students on the late buses as “tardy.”
Perry said the LC-M district has hired two people who are in the process of training for the commercial driver’s license to allow them to become bus drivers. Still, the district has about eight openings. The district also has one driver recuperating from surgery who should return in a few weeks.
The Bridge City and Orangefield school districts currently have all positions full. Brian Ousley, the director of transportation and maintenance at Orangefield, said this is the first time he started the school year with a full bus driver staff in two years.
“I feel very fortunate because I know what a dire need there is for drivers,” Ousley said.
The Bridge City district reports all full-time bus positions are full, but substitute drivers are still needed.
West Orange-Cove CISD spokeswoman Lorraine Shannon said the district is short two bus drivers. “Given the outstanding team work of our transportation department, we have been able to merge routes in order to make up for the shortage,” she said. “After the first three days of school we have been able to pick up students on time and deliver them home in the afternoon in a reasonable time-frame.”
The WO-C district for many years contracted private companies to provide and operate school buses, but a couple of years ago re-established its own transportation department.
Perry said the LC-M district has hired two people who are in the process of training for the commercial driver’s license to allow them to become bus drivers.
The LC-M district sent a letter to parents last week before school started explaining the shortage of drivers. The district has staggered starting times for the different level of schools with the high school beginning at the latest time. The district is allowing some high school students on the routes without drivers to go early with a middle school bus. Otherwise, the drivers deliver the middle school students and then go back for high school students.
The letter said a contributing factor to the problem hiring bus drivers is because of construction of an industrial plant in the Sulphur-Westlake area in Louisiana. Drivers with commercial licenses are being hired to driver construction workers from parking lots to the work site. Those drivers are earning more than the average school bus driver and work more hours, including the summer.
Perry said anyone wanting to become a bus driver with LC-M should apply through the district’s website, www.lcmcisd.org, or at the administration building, 6586 FM 1130 in Orange.
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