ST. LOUIS — School districts across the St. Louis area are still looking for bus drivers with the start of school just one week away.
It's a problem nationwide and districts in the area are getting creative on how to solve it.
The good news is while districts do have openings, they are still in better shape than they were last year.
Saint Louis Public Schools had to temporarily suspend routes last year because of the shortage. According to Communications Director George Sells, they have the exact number of drivers they need for their routes, but their goal is to hire on about 20 more.
Mike Heyman, Rockwood School District Transporation Director, said many districts are in the same boat.
"I guess the comforting thing is that it's not just Rockwood, it's, you know, nationwide," Heyman said.
It almost feels like deja vu. The first school bell is about to ring and districts are trying to make sure students can get there on time.
According to Heyman, Rockwood still needs more drivers.
"We don't have as many as we want, but we have enough drivers to staff all of our routes and a couple extra. Nothing that we feel as comfortable as we want to be about, but we're getting there, we're getting there," he said.
Heyman said he would like to hire a dozen more drivers and that's even after the district got creative.
"We consolidated one route here in Eureka and we had to take out a route in Fenton, but it's all worked out, and we've got the majority of kids on busses," he said.
Heyman has been transportation director since 2016, so he has experienced firsthand how much harder it is to recruit people to get behind the wheel.
"A thousand times more difficult, to be honest with you. There was one time in our heyday we had 182 drivers. We have 106 now," he said.
Paul Ziegler, Education Plus CEO, believes districts are in a better spot than they were one year ago because they are thinking out of the box.
"I think they've been very creative. Whether that's been in the way that they've attracted people through sign-on bonuses or making maybe the job a little more flexible," he said.
Similar to Rockwood, Ziegler said to cope with the shortage many districts switched up routes ahead of the upcoming school year.
"Some have eliminated routes and looked at where they could be a little bit more efficient on how they do that. Rather, that's changing routes within a subdivision or where they're picking up at," he said.
All in all, most districts said they are in a more comfortable spot this year, but they still need your help... not only to fill the driver seats but also with your patience.
"This is like a major city that starts up overnight, so there's always going to be some hiccups, no matter how much we train or how much we plan, things happen," Ziegler said.
Francis Howell School District said they are fully staffed for bus drivers this year.
Pattonville School District has two open bus driver positions.
Parkway School District could use about four more drivers, compared to last year at this time when they needed closer to 10.
The Mehlville School District said they have most routes covered but have 10 openings right now.
You can apply to Rockwood School District here.