Raleigh County Schools bus driver and West Virginia House Delegate Christopher Toney, R-Raleigh, said Raleigh County Schools is canceling four to five bus routes daily due to a critical bus driver shortage.
“This is the first year we’ve canceled so many runs,” Toney said. “Last year, we canceled one periodically, but it wasn’t as prevalent as it is now … The problem we have is not only here in Raleigh County – we seem to have the most numbers – but it’s all throughout the state and throughout the nation.”
Officials with the Raleigh County Schools District are addressing a bus driver shortage by implementing a new policy allowing retired bus drivers to serve as substitute bus drivers during critical shortages without impacting their retirement benefits.
During a Raleigh County Board of Education meeting Tuesday, board members voted to put the new policy, titled C.3.9 Substitute Bus Drivers in Areas of Critical Need and Shortage, out on a 30-day comment period.
Toney said the policy results from recently passed state legislation that allows counties to employ retired bus operators as critical needs substitutes on an expanded basis.
He added that the policy mirrors one that was also done by the Legislature to allow retired teachers to substitute during critical teacher shortages.
As it stands, retired bus operators are only allowed to work 140 days during a school year without impacting their retirement benefits.
However, with the bus driver shortage, Toney said many retirees are filling in full-time and would hit that 140-day limit in March, resulting in dozens of daily bus route cancellations.
“Right now, we’re canceling four or five (bus routes) a day, sometimes more or less,” he said, adding that they also have five to six bus driver substitutes working each day to fill in for people who might call out or be on leave.
Raleigh County residents can review the policy on the district’s website at boe.rale.k12.wv.us/page/policies30day. Comments on the policy can be emailed to [email protected].
While the new policy will come in handy down the road when retirees reach their limit, Toney said they still need to address the more significant bus driver shortage facing the state.
Raleigh School Board member Richard Snuffer agreed with Toney, calling the county’s new policy a “Band-Aid.”
Tony said some issues driving the bus driver shortage are because of county and state policies.
At the state level, Toney said he’s heard it’s taken a month and sometimes more for the state police to complete background checks, which is holding up the hiring process.
“We’re gonna try to figure out why it’s taking so long to get it back,” he said. “It could be a lack of manpower for them, too, trying to get it through.”
He added that pay is also a significant contributing factor.
Locally, Tony said the process to become a bus driver can take up to two months, which means potential school bus drivers may have to go two months without a paycheck.
Toney said state code allows counties to adopt a policy that gives stipends to potential workers during training.
“Every individual county sets up how they want to do it,” he said. “I think Raleigh County pays $500 (stipends) two times, but you’re not getting that check until once you’re actually employed, and that’s two months you’re not getting paid. That can be tweaked county by county depending on how they want to do it.”
Toney said overall salary is also an issue, especially now that truck drivers are more in demand.
“With a (commercial driver’s) license, driving a school bus, you’re gonna start at about $23,000 (a year),” he said. “But you can go drive a fuel truck for around $70,000 (a year), so it’s the pay differential there. And then, right now, a lot of our coal mines are booming, so they’re hiring more coal truck drivers. So our people are going there because they can work more hours and get more pay.”
Toney said the Raleigh County Schools District has 125 full-time bus routes. He said some of their substitute drivers and retirees are on some of those routes full-time.
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