LEE COUNTY, Fla. - There are about 753 daily school bus routes across Lee County, but district officials say there aren’t enough drivers to complete them. Tuesday night the Lee County School Board is discussing a bus driver incentive program in hopes to attract more drivers.
Since august the bus driver shortage has been a headache for parents and kids who are just trying to get to school on time. Julia Perry, parent “There’s absolutely no excuse for not scheduling a bus to pick these kids up,” said Julia Perry, Gulf Elementary School parent.
“It’s getting old because my kids are getting late to school, which means they are missing out on their education,” said Mary Evans, Riverdale High School parent.
Tuesday the school district announced it promoted 38 substitute bus drivers to full time bumping the total number of drivers from 707 to 745. “We have 753 daily routes, so we are still short,”said Rob Spicker, Public Information Officer for Lee County School District.
Spicker explains the district is about 100 drivers short of where they want to be.
With this incentive package the district is confident it’ll hire more drivers.
“In 2017 we hired about 171 drivers, and last year having the package expired so we only about hired 80, so it works it doubles the number of drivers,” said Spicker.
Part of the plan includes paying the hiring costs for employees. “I think it’s a good idea, because yes we need more bus drivers and if there’s an incentive for them,” said Evans.
Another perk is waiving the high school diploma requirement for potential drivers. “To me it doesn’t matter, they should pass a background check, drive the bus, and be able to handle the kids,” said Perry.
The district says driver’s must pass all the exams so this has no impact on student safety.
The short term solutions would be for one calendar year and expire February 27, 2020.
Spicker says there is also a tentative agreement for a raise for bus drivers that would start July 1st, but he couldn’t share how much of an increase it would be.
