LANCASTER COUNTY, S.C. — The Lancaster County School District is facing bus driver shortages.
Last week, there were 17 drivers who became unavailable.
Many of these drivers are out due to family illnesses, family commitments and quarantine obligations from COVID-19.
Some of the parents were concerned their kids would be shifted to another bus, the time buses might arrive or if their kids health would be at risk.
Lancaster County School transportation leaders say they can’t give private details as far as the absences, but they want parents to know COVID-19 is only a small percentage related to the shortages and that the district is doing everything it can to be transparent with parents on what’s happening.
“We’re in the process of trying to recruit and hire some folks. We still believe we’re going to get more of those 12 drivers back eventually,” said Bryan Vaughn, LCSD director of Safety and Transportation. But we just want parents to hopefully know, number one that we take, that we’re taking special precautions to make sure that we are safe with our kids, making sure that our staff members are safe. We want to make sure that our drivers are taken care of. And we are not going to cut any corners. We are still going to be able to provide the same serve that we have in the past. We may be a little slower than we have in the past, but things will continue to rock along as normal.”
Vaughn says there is a positive to all of this. In a normal school year, 7,000 kids ride the bus. But with the current pandemic, the school operates on an A/B schedule and virtual program. And with that, roughly 4,500 to 5,000 students are taking the bus. The school has still had to move kids around, but it’s something leaders say is manageable.
Up to this point, 5 out of 17 bus drivers have returned. For now, the Lancaster County school district is hoping to have several more of the absent bus drivers return by next week.
The district is working on recruiting and hiring more bus drivers for the future.
We’re told it should be up to full speed by the holidays.
