JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. (WDRB) -- More than 20 times since Jan. 1, Lacy Phillips has adjusted her morning routine to drive her son to and from Riverside Elementary School after the third-grade student’s bus route was canceled.
“The notifications come in day by day, so if you're trying to plan your work week ahead of time, it's very difficult,” Phillips said. “You kind of have to assume that your bus isn't going to run and know not to schedule anything during that morning and that afternoon block.”
The transportation situation at Greater Clark County Schools has improved lately, particularly with new $300 bonuses for bus drivers with perfect attendance between April 19 and May 5 approved by the GCCS board on April 26. The incentive pay period included the school corporation’s iLearn testing window for Indiana standardized assessments.
While her son’s buses are running on schedule now, Phillips worries that transportation issues at GCCS could reemerge once bonus pay for drivers expires this week.
"That's an innovative solution, but why weren't we doing this all along?" she said. “... It’s been very worrisome."
GCCS Superintendent Mark Laughner said driver absences, including for medical leave, caused most of this year’s route cancellations. The $300 bonus pay for perfect attendance helped keep bus routes running, and GCCS “constantly” reviews compensation and routes “to be proactive to make our operations as efficient as possible,” he said in an email.
Drivers saw their pay increase in the latest employment agreement with GCCS, Laughner said.
GCCS also aggressively recruits prospective bus drivers through social media advertisements and job fairs, he said.
“Our issue for canceling routes is that we had a significant number on medical leave,” Laughner said. “We believe as we move into next year we do not foresee this as being an issue because we feel we will have the required drivers to cover each route and have sub drivers to help accommodate absences.”
Phillips works from home, giving her more flexibility than other parents and guardians in handling last-minute changes to her school transportation schedule. Still, she worries about families that cannot get their kids to school on days when their buses don’t run.
“There are a lot of parents who have the same concerns that I have and have a lot harder time adapting when there are cancellations than I have,” she said.
Phillips said she has talked with some current and former GCCS families who have pulled their children from the school corporation or are considering it over transportation issues.
“If your child misses school, yes, it's an excused absence. But it's also a day that they're missing instruction,” she said. “There's no way to make that up. All it is is you get kind of the homework packet sent home and you just kind of have to feel your way through it. But for a lot of people, that's not enough.”
Not having enough bus drivers and substitutes to cover for those who take sick leave is problematic for families who rely on school transportation to get their kids to classes, she said.
“You have to be able to trust that your boss can cover you when you need to be away, right?” she said. “There needs to be at least that much redundancy in the system.”
GCCS is not the only school district in southern Indiana dealing with bus route cancellations. At New Albany Floyd County Schools, Transportation Director Eric Reid said 242 routes have been canceled so far in the 2021-22 school year. The school corporation has 171 morning routes and 172 evening routes for a total of nearly 62,000 in the school year.
“That equates to 0.0039% of our routes” affected by cancellations, Reid said in an email.
Not all school districts have experienced similar transportation woes, however.
Jefferson County Public Schools, Kentucky’s largest public school district, has not had any bus routes canceled so far this school year.
“There have been some delays because of unexpected driver call-ins, but we have always managed to get the routes covered,” Carolyn Callahan, the district’s chief of communications and community relations, said in an email.
Phillips said she hopes transportation issues at GCCS have been smoothed out for the rest of this school year and for the 2022-23 term and she believes families should have additional options like full-time remote learning.
“For me, it's an inconvenience. For other parents, they have no options,” she said. “There aren't any before- and after-school care options, so if they have to be at work at 7:30 in the morning, there's nowhere that they can take their child and drop them off and them be cared for until school starts at 9.”
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