See story on A1.
When it comes to the bus driver shortages facing schools throughout Sampson County — and even within the Clinton City Schools district for that matter — there are no easy answers. Gone are the days when high school students were tasked with driving the buses and apparently, too, so are the days in which numerous adults were willing to tackle the job of driving a school bus, even with all its stresses and distractions.
The resulting shortage of drivers now brings us to the unfortunate problem of students not being able to get to school on time, and the uncertainty of when they will be returned home. If a child’s parents work — which is often the case — it creates a dilemma as to which parent will have to take time away from work to drop off and/or pick up the child. It’s a situation parents and guardians throughout Sampson County are now facing, and have been facing for far too long.
The county school system’s response has been to require custodial staff, cafeteria workers and teacher assistants to obtain and maintain a bus driver’s license, or risk losing their jobs. And now, the Sampson school board has voted to amend that policy, exempting staff members with 20-plus years of service from the requirement, cutting out a total of five individuals from bus driver status.
According to the discussion during recent school board meetings, some employees, approximately 48, have offered excuses for not being able to obtain their bus driver’s license, excuses that administrators have questioned. Others have obtained their license or are working to get one (around 90). In total, there are 250 people impacted by the school board’s decision, with 112 assigned to a bus.
The bus situation is a dire problem, and one that doesn’t look like it’s going to disappear.
It’s hard to fault with anyone in this instance. Teacher assistants, cafeteria workers and custodial staff signed up to do those jobs, not to drive a school bus, but dire problems require dire resolutions, which is what school board members had to find.
With that in mind, we can’t fault the Board of Education members either. They are doing what they deem necessary to ensure there are enough drivers to keep buses running and kids in school.
It’s a quagmire for sure, with very few easy solutions.
While we understand staff not wanting to drive a bus, when they were hired by the school system, they should have known that situations arise that call for doing more than what might be in a job description. This is, unfortunately, one of those situations. While not preferable, it does fall into that “other duties as assigned” category that usually comes with any job.
Being a help rather than a hindrance is called for until a better resolution can be found.
Perhaps in the future, though, school leaders can look toward contracting transportation, something that might seem costly now but, in the long run, will be an easier financial pill to swallow than buses without drivers. Many metropolitan areas already do this, and while it’s not as easy for rural counties to consider, it may be the road systems like ours will eventually have to travel.
In the meantime, we’re grateful that school leaders are doing what they can to address the shortage now, before the situation grows even more dire. It’s not as if school bus drivers are plentiful anywhere, or make loads of money, so Sampson is doing what it needs to do to ensure that students are able to get safely to and from school every single day.
We hope that this policy works in the way that the Board of Education and other school district leaders intend, with no buses being left without drivers and all students arriving to and from school in a timely manner.
No matter what, we applaud and support those who, whether they like it or not, sit behind the wheel and safely transport our students to and from school. It’s often a thankless job, so for those that are willing to be bus drivers, we appreciate you. Now more than ever.