Drivers still needed at RCS

Substitute bus drivers are “desperately” needed in the RCS school district following nearly two months of school in which the district’s mechanics and transportation director have been pressed into service nearly daily to cover bus routes.

“We are getting desperate for drivers. The four mechanics, the head bus driver and I are driving every day because of absences and a lack of substitute bus drivers,” said Transportation Director Janice Prior.

The use of mechanics and other transportation department personnel not typically assigned a bus route places strains on the department, such as delays in repairs of the district’s fleet of more than 60 buses and overtime costs.

The district – like many in the region and across the state – has had difficulty filling driver positions in the past. In response, RCS offers training for the necessary CDL license school bus drivers need as well as works with other departments to try to provide full-time employment to substitutes and other drivers.

In its most recent effort to fill the substitute driver slots, the district recently increased the hourly pay rate of substitutes to $13 an hour, Prior said.

A full staffing for RCS is 50 drivers, who must cover approximately 50 bus routes with more than 200 separate runs per day, Prior said. Additionally, the district tries to maintain a pool of at least four full-time backup drivers to cover for staff absences.

Anyone interested in becoming a bus driver should contact the Transportation Department at 756-5200, ext. 7100.