The Kingston City School District opened its doors for the 2021-22 school year last week, and while it’s been a mostly smooth endeavor, school officials acknowledge that there is still work to be done with transportation.
According to Superintendent Paul Padalino, the district ordinarily operates 135 buses to serve students in its high school, pair of middle schools and seven elementary schools, but this year it is running fewer than 120. A perfect storm of a bus driver shortage and the need for rigorous rider safety measures with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has led to a bumpy start, with reports of students being late or left behind altogether.
The district acknowledged its busing issues in a social media post on Thursday, September 9, one day after schools opened. It cast the staffing issues as problems that extend far beyond the KCSD and said they had restructured bus routes as a result.
“School districts across the state and country are experiencing a shortage of bus drivers as we begin this new school year,” read the district’s Facebook post. “With this driver shortage, KCSD has had to make some hard decisions. Some bus routes have been merged or revamped to accommodate transporting more students to school and back home again. Several bus stops have been combined or moved to ensure student and bus driver safety, as well as quicker pick-ups and drop-offs.”
The district added that because of the driver shortage, even longtime familiar pickup locations may have been impacted.
The post also addressed concerns about overcrowding, the wearing of masks not being enforced, and bus windows not being opened, all of which go against the district’s current safety guidelines.
The issue was still on the minds of school officials during a meeting of the Board of Education held on Tuesday, September 14, as Padalino addressed the efforts to smooth out the rough edges and provide safe and reliable transportation for students.
“There’s no simple solution here,” Padalino said. “We do know that there are some buses that have arrived late or are picking up students early, and we’re doing the best we can. This is not a problem that’s going to solve itself very quickly, and some of the solutions that we had to come up with obviously changed things for people.”
Padalino said that transportation prior to the pandemic was much more accommodating than they’re able to currently be.
“We didn’t have this bus driver shortage in the way that we have now, so we had to move bus stops and we have had to combine routes,” Padalino said. “We understand that it’s inconvenient, and we understand that it’s a little different than the way we’ve done things…Yes, you may have to walk a couple more blocks than you used to have to walk to get to your bus stop, or maybe the bus ride is a little bit longer than it would have been in the past. But I don’t foresee a new crop of bus drivers popping up in the very near future.”
School officials believe that one of the reasons contracted bus companies are being faced with a shortage is that licensed bus drivers can often make more money with commercial driving options. State guidelines for becoming school bus driver have also become more stringent, Padalino said.
“Not very long ago, they actually increased the requirements for being a school bus driver from what they were in the past and adding new things, like lifting the hood and being able to fix certain things under the hood,” Padalino said. “So the direction of the bus driving certification is actually going the other way, becoming more difficult.”
The superintendent added that the hiring of bus drivers is not within the purview of the school district, but rather the bus companies the district contracts with.
“We don’t own buses,” Padalino said. “We don’t employ bus drivers. We contract our buses from different bus companies. So we don’t decide the rate of pay or the benefits of those entities with those individuals.”
School Board President James Shaughnessy said that he’d both heard about and seen buses with their windows up, or only lowered partially, a concern he said he hopes the district will continue to push to address to help ensure student safety and minimize the potential spread of the coronavirus.
“This time of year there’s no reason for not having the windows down unless we’re having torrential rain,” said Padalino. “We are continuing to follow up with our bus companies and they have told their drivers that when you get on that bus in the morning, go down and lower them. But if a student puts that window up and they’re driving down Rte. 28, the bus driver may not see it.”
The next meeting of the Board of Education is scheduled for Wednesday, October 6.