SPRINGFIELD — There was no school Wednesday for students at Clark-Shawnee Local School District because there weren’t enough bus drivers.
The national bus driver shortage was a problem all of last year and is continuing into 2024.
>> RELATED: Classes canceled today for Clark County school district due to bus driver shortages
News Center 7′s Kayla McDermott talked to the district’s superintendent who explained how challenging the shortage can be.
“We know that it’s a challenge for families,” said Superintendent Brian Kuhn. “We have 19 drivers, our challenge is that our sub pool does not have a lot of names on it.”
Exactly 19 drivers for the 19 bus routes the district runs.
Kuhn said drivers called out sick following the holiday.
“We have about four drivers out of our system right now,” he said.
Kuhn said he needs more drivers so his current staff can call out when needed.
“Our operation is serving kids, we’ve got to have substitutes. And that is the challenge that we face,” Kuhn said.
With the callouts coming in Tuesday evening, there was not enough time to come up with a plan.
“We’ve had to consolidate routes, earlier points during the school year due to driver shortages,” Kuhn said.
>> RELATED: Children left at home after school buses didn’t show; parents left frustrated
This is not the only school in the district impacted by the ongoing shortage. Just last month News Center 7 spoke to a mother whose child is a student in Greene County and was left standing in the cold because no driver came.
To keep that from happening to students at Shawnee, the district decided to keep students at home.
“This is the first time where it’s really impacted operations to the point where we could not have school,” Kuhn said.
Kuhn shared why he thinks this trend is continuing into the new year.
“Its responsibilities are unique,” he said. “You have 50 kids in a moving vehicle behind you where you’re taking care of your driving monitoring student behavior, monitoring other people’s driving, that gets hard.”
The school is currently working on a plan for tomorrow if drivers are still sick.
The transportation hub and Kuhn have been coming up with a plan since Wednesday morning to figure out the routes for students on Thursday since getting them back in the classroom is their top priority.
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