Another school year is underway for most districts in the region, and with that comes a possible bus driver shortage.

“We started out last year with not enough drivers,” Boyd County Superintendent Bill Boblett said.

That meant consolidating and even canceling some bus routes – so mechanics pitched in to drive. In some cases, they were working 12-hour days.

“That in itself causes problems with our maintenance part of the fleets where they are not getting maintained as well as they should,” Boblett said.

He said the tide started to turn in the spring when the school system contracted with School Transportation Systems out of Lexington, Ky. The company uses a computer program to look at bus routes, showing which can be consolidated or reworked, saving miles on buses and taxpayer money.

“That will allow us to be more efficient, allow us to not have as many routes,” Boblett said.

The superintendent said this school year, the district has enough drivers, but shortages continue in other places. According to the 2024 State of School Transportation Report from HopSkipDrive, 91% said their district is having a bus driver shortage and 60% said the shortage is severe enough to have reduced routes.

Jimmy Lacy, director of transportation for the West Virginia Department of Education, said many counties are trying to build up their bench strength regarding drivers.

“Some of the counties have enough full-time drivers, but if a driver gets sick or gets injured or hurt, they don’t have enough back-up drivers,” he said.

Charles Towner, with Mason County Schools, said while they have enough drivers to start the year, the problem comes later in the year when a school has sport events away from home and finding a driver to cover the daily bus routes.

“I’m probably about five away from being comfortable,” he said. “That would put us at about 17 subs and that would be a comfortable place to be.”

According to the State of School Transportation report, more than 44% of school leaders said transportation issues are a contributing factor to chronic absenteeism.

Officials said driving a school bus can be very rewarding and becomes a way to be part of the education process without being in a classroom.