ST CHARLES, Mo. — Critical bus driver shortages are causing one St. Charles County School District to make some difficult decisions.
Francis Howell School District Superintendent, Ken Roumpos, said there are several problems the district is facing that are impacting the bus driver shortage.
It's everything from retirement to rising costs to even how they are funded by the state.
Roumpos said they want to make changes now because they expect the problem to only get worse.
"We are really trying to be proactive and avoid a crisis next year when it comes to a shortage of staffing," he said.
It's a crisis that, Roumpos said, could affect hundreds of students and families in the Francis Howell School District and it's all centered around those yellow buses.
"Several of our neighboring districts have had to go through that in the last year or two. We've been fortunate that we haven't yet, and we don't want that to happen," he said.
There are seven bus driver openings right now in the district, according to Roumpos.
While that number may not seem huge, the district is covering 30 to 40 bus routes daily for drivers who can't come in.
"We're having to use our office staff each and every day to cover all of those routes. Everyone who can drive a bus in the Francis Howell School District is out driving one each and every day," he said.
On top of that, according to Roumpos, 44% of the district's bus drivers will be eligible for retirement next year.
"This year it's been a minimal impact, although it's caused a lot of stress inside our department and for some of our families, but we fully expect that to only get worse over the next couple of years," he said.
That's why the district is looking at possible changes.
Roumpos said one option is that bus transportation would not be provided for students who live within one mile of the school, with the exception of unsafe streets or special needs students.
That would free up at least 15 bus drivers to be available for other routes.
"We currently transport all students. We are one of very few districts in the St. Louis area where students who live less than a mile can still ride a bus to school," he said.
Another option, Roumpos said, is to change start and end times for some schools, which would eliminate 18 bus routes and free up drivers too.
"That would allow us to have middle school and high school students ride the bus to and from school together. Right now, we run one high school route generally and then one middle school route," he said.
Roumpos said any of these options would free up drivers and make the bus routes more efficient and save the district money.
"Even if finances were no obstacle, we can't find enough drivers in order to cover all of our routes, so we can continue to offer a high level of customer service for our families each and every day," he said.
It's a vacancy, that Roumpos said, every school is competing for, which is why changes are necessary.
"The reality is any of the changes we are considering are going to have a direct impact on our students and our families and are going to cause some inconvenience, as well as, for our staff and for our buildings. Everyone recognizes that this a problem we are working together to solve and so, we looked at multiple solutions and are trying to identify what is the best of several ultimate solutions that nobody is going to love, but that they are best for the district," he said.
The district received more than 600 responses to their transportation survey and over 100 people attended their roundtable that discussed these problems and solutions.
According to Roumpos, the district is going to look through the responses and they hope to have a decision made by the spring, so everyone has time to adjust before the upcoming school year.
You can apply to be a Francis Howell School District bus driver here.