For years, the start of every new school year led to an overwhelming number of complaints about school buses 鈥� or the lack of buses 鈥� in Prince George鈥檚 County, Maryland.
Irate parents would take to social media to complain that buses didn鈥檛 show up, and that they were stuck on hold for sometimes hours when they would call to find out if their kid was getting taken to school.
A bus driver shortage is being felt nationally, but it鈥檚 especially noticeable in Prince George鈥檚 County, which is one of the largest school systems in the country and one that needs to bus tens of thousands of students to class every day.
鈥淭he bus situation has been really frustrating over several years,鈥� said Michael Geise, of Cheverly.
Not so much for his oldest son, who is now in high school. But his middle schooler would miss all of first period every day if he waited for the bus. Parents in his neighborhood have set up carpools so kids can get to class on time.
He said the message he got from the school system was 鈥渋f you really want bus service, you had to let your kids be late to school consistently,鈥� Geise said. 鈥淎nd for me as a parent, that really wasn’t the approach we’ve been following.鈥�
But this week, Geise said, he鈥檚 noticing an improvement.
鈥淥n Monday and Wednesday this week, the morning bus for pretty much the first time this year, was really only like 10 or so minutes late,鈥� he said. That meant his son could get from Cheverly to his school in Greenbelt 鈥渋n time for the start of first period. That is a small sample size, but encouraging compared to earlier in the school year.鈥�
And on social media, the number of complaints about county school buses is also starting to decline. So are the calls made to the school system鈥檚 transportation department.
鈥淭hings are things are definitely improving,鈥� said interim superintendent Shawn Joseph. 鈥淲e’re still down some bus drivers, so there’s still challenges, but not as prevalent as previous years.鈥�
The county started the school year off short about 130 bus drivers, which was actually an improvement over recent years. But over the last month, about 40 new drivers have been hired, and Joseph said about 200 more are in the hiring pipeline. Not all of them will end up getting hired, but he said it鈥檚 an indication that efforts being put into recruiting and hiring are paying off. No one is spiking the football yet though, and Joseph says he鈥檚 not satisfied with where things are yet.
鈥淭here are still issues in certain communities, because the busses are looping so we still have too many late busses, and it’s still causing a disruption in different communities,鈥� said Joseph. 鈥淭he majority of us are getting to school on time, but there is a healthy minority that is still late, particularly in the mornings.
鈥淚 think the evenings are getting better, but the mornings have been a challenge, and it’s something we have to look at because we’re working on addressing truancy,鈥� he also said. 鈥淎nd part of the truancy issue could be the number of busses that are late.鈥�
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