Whitley Co. making Plans for possible bus driver shortages

In the last few years it has been commonplace to hear about bus driver shortages throughout our state and the nation. The Whitley County School District is making plans to ensure that if such a shortage strikes here, in-person instruction will be able to continue for students.

“In our district, we have been fortunate to be able to have drivers to cover all of our routes but that is becoming increasingly hard to do,” school officials said in a release Tuesday. “We recognize that many of our students and their parents are very dependent on the district to transport their children and we are committed to exploring every avenue to ensure that we can continue to do just that. Our transportation department has been developing a plan to keep our buses rolling during the pandemic.”

In the event that a bus driver has to be out and no substitute driver is available, some drivers will be driving two routes in both the morning and afternoon as part of the plan.

“Once the driver has picked up all their students from their regular route and dropped them off at school, the driver would then begin picking up students on the second bus route covering for the driver that is out sick,” according to the release.

This would mean that students being picked up on the driver’s second route would be getting picked up about 40-50 minutes later than normal and arriving to school late. The delayed routes would start picking up students around 7:25 a.m. and drop students off at their school around 8:20 a.m. Children involved in one of the delayed routes will not be counted tardy, and they will have the opportunity to eat a late breakfast.

To communicate to families that their child will be getting picked up later than usual the district will use the Alert Call System, which is the same system used when school is canceled.

“With this system we can send the alert call to homes of those students that ride on the bus that will be delayed. This will allow parents to know that they do not need to send their child to the bus stop till a later time. In most cases, this call would go out to parents prior to 6:00 a.m.,” the release stated.

“It is very important that your child’s school have up to date phone numbers so that you receive the alert call notifying you that your child’s bus will be delayed. If you have changed phone numbers, please contact your child’s school and ask them to update your contact information in Infinite Campus.”

The Whitley County School District is nearing its 100th day of in-person instruction in the district this school year.

“This would not have been possible without the school district, parents, and community members working jointly to overcome the obstacles that have come as a result of the pandemic. We appreciate the support and understanding of everyone as we continue to work to navigate our way through these challenging times,” school officials wrote in the release.