In addition to a prior starting pay increase, the school board voted to increase pay scales by 2.5% to entice more drivers into the school district.
FAIRFAX COUNTY SCHOOL BUS DRIVER SHORTAGE PLUS
The other problem is that the who had the accident is supposed to be doing something too, so whatever they were supposed to be doing is now late, plus whatever I’m supposed to be doing is now late…Fortunately, they didn’t have any kids on the bus yet.” “ I abandoned the run I was about to do that would have been on time-I had to come to the accident, so the run…was an hour late. “What happens with an accident is the supervisor has to go and do a report,” O’Keefe said. That spells trouble when a catastrophe derails the entire pickup schedule. Now, without floaters and enough drivers, O’Keefe and the bus supervisors must drive buses throughout the morning and afternoon. And only in very extreme circumstances…would I end up driving around.” The bus driver supervisors are available in case of a breakdown. “The two ‘floaters’ would generally cover anytime a person calls in sick in the morning.
“I’m a supervisor and I have two bus driver supervisors under me,” O’Keefe said. The supervisors who deal with administrative work must drive buses in addition to working their own positions. The shortage has rocked the entire transportation infrastructure to its core two floaters, experienced drivers who served as backups in case others can’t come to work, are no longer an option. The district tries to avoid making the same drivers double-back for consecutive schools, but even then buses will be late. “Our bus apparently left early without me and…5 other girls, so the school had to bring another bus in.” “I’ve been late to class once,” said senior Vaneeza Pasha, who relies on the school bus to travel to and from an off-campus academy class.
The reasons for making on-the-fly decisions vary a bus may be at capacity, for instance, which would result in delegating any remaining students to another bus driver. “And what ends up happening is that drivers are going to be late for their McLean run…it has a domino effect: Longfellow makes McLean late, makes Kent Gardens late, makes Haycock late.”ĭrivers stretched to their limit have been forced to make abrupt changes to service, like skipping stops on routes and leaving earlier than scheduled. It has a compounding effect that progressively worsens as day continues. Now, bus drivers must “double-back,” meaning they work one school route, then do another route for the same school immediately after. The severe shortage existed last school year too, but since so few students opted for in-person learning, multiple routes could easily be consolidated into one without posing an overcrowding risk to riders. “ bus is supposed to arrive at 3:35 PM,” sophomore Shanthanu Desai said. Many riders have experienced some service disruption as a result of the shortage, particularly those far from the school. Area 4 is the McLean & Langley pyramids, as drawn by the Office of Transportation Services. This year, we’re around 180 to 190,” said Area 4 Transportation Supervisor Thomas O’Keefe. “Before COVID, our shortage countywide was somewhere around 80 buses that d have drivers. It was easy for the school district to work around the shortage in previous years, but with a recovering pandemic economy, retirement-age workforce and too many uncovered routes, the problem is now inescapable. Late buses will fill the remaining spots on the swaths of empty pavement as they arrive.įor years, a bus driver shortage has plagued the affluent McLean & Langley pyramids, economically isolated from the lower-income regions of Northern Virginia that attract bus drivers for Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS). Students line up near on-time buses at the end of the school day.
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