School districts doing everything they can to hire bus drivers

For the past several years, school districts across the nation have struggled to hire enough bus drivers, forcing districts in Oregon and Washington to do everything they can to fill those empty positions.

This summer, Salem-Keizer Public Schools held a job fair, hoping to fill 25 to 30 empty spots.

“We need bus drivers, I mean there’s no doubt about it,” said District COO Michael Wolfe. “Every year we struggle to fill positions. This year, It’s even worse.” Worse, he said , because the district changed its boundaries, requiring more buses, and therefore, more drivers.

Agustin Gonzalez told KATU he looked for a job in Oregon for two years before recently becoming a bus driver with Salem-Keizer.

“Finally, I can breathe,” he said. Fluent in English, Spanish and sign language, Gonzalez hopes to drive students with special needs. “I feel like this is my place. I want to work here.”

Retired carpenter, Craig Voris, is hoping to fill another empty spot. He said he was inspired by his son, who already drives for Salem-Keizer.

“I’ve never driven a bus before in my life,” said Voris, who was test driving a school bus for the first time. “As long as I don’t hit anything, I think I’m going to be good.”

Portland Public Schools is also struggling to find and retain drivers. The director of student transportation said they’re looking to fill at least six positions. Because of this, they’re not able to add as many new routes as they had hoped.

In Washington, Tency Ross is finishing up her training. She told KATU, “I feel like it’s a good job. It’s a good skill. It’s also a job that will enable me to go back to work because I’ve been at home with my son.”

She’s providing some much-needed relief for Vancouver Public Schools.

“Last year was tough. We did not have enough subs,” said Safety Training Supervisor Nancy Moore. She said office staff and administrators had to fill in and drive buses regularly. This year, Moore said they’re looking better because they made one big change – paying for behind-the-wheel training. VPS offers $15 an hour up to 40 hours for training. Once hired, substitutes make $20.08 an hour and permanent drivers make $23.60. But VPS still needs to hire 15 drivers.

Just one district over, the Evergreen High School cafeteria is filled with drivers.

“[I’m] feeling really good about the first day of school. For the first time in three years, we’re going in with a really strong sub base,” said Transportation Director Yvonne Gaylord. She said last year Evergreen Public Schools started with 14 substitute drivers. This year it's starting with 44.

“It’s heartwarming,” said Training Supervisor Kathy Bleth. “We’ve put a lot of time and effort into picking the safest people to transport our children.”

She’s talking about people like Ray Agarpo.

“This job has a lot of challenges. It’s different every day. I’m looking forward to working with kids again.” The newly-hired driver said, “They do a really good job of supporting their school bus drivers.”

Gaylord said beyond support, she attributes the district’s success to outreach and advertising, a quick and painless hiring process, paid training and a competitive wage starting at $22.27 an hour.

She has some advice for others still struggling to hire drivers.

“The first thing you want to do is just have the support of the district, the support of the superintendent, the support of HR. You want to make sure that they are on the same page with you. You want to offer a competition wage. You want to work together as a team.”

Back in Oregon, Craig Voris just finished his test drive with Salem-Keizer Public Schools. “I didn’t hit anything,” he said excitedly, “It wasn’t as hard as I thought.”

That’s a good thing, because there are consequences if all the driver positions are not filled.

“We’d have to adjust routes and schedules and we would not be able to get all of our students to all of the schools on time,” said District COO Michael Wolfe. He said Salem-Keizer mentors drivers through the process, pays for training and will have a salary that will compete with -or even beat- other districts. “We want you to want to be a bus driver for Salem-Keizer School District and we’ll do everything we can to make that happen.”