Garnering a consistent pool of school bus drivers remains challenging in Clark County, transportation directors report. In recent years, driver absences resulting from the shortage have created substantial delays in several school districts.
A national study published last year said the total number of K-12 bus drivers was down 15.1 percent from 2019. In Clark County, the biggest challenge is developing a pool of substitutes who can cover for drivers when conflicts arise.
“We’re definitely still seeing a shortage,” KWRL Transportation Cooperative Director Shannon Barnett said. “Right now, we don’t have enough drivers to fill all our routes. Anyone who comes to us doesn’t become a sub. They get a route.”
KWRL handles transportation for an estimated 7,000 students across Kalama, Woodland, Ridgefield and La Center. In recent years, the shortage has forced KWRL to tap mechanics and office staff to complete routes when necessary.
The biggest barrier to attracting candidates is the amount of time it takes to obtain a commercial driver’s license, Barnett said.
“When you’re gaining your CDL, it’s kind of an arduous process for both sides because there are so many hoops to jump through,” Barnett said.
Those “hoops” for prospective drivers include fingerprinting, drug testing, a physical exam and driving exams. While KWRL is able to waive the cost of each step, the entire process can take more than a month. Many potential drivers are people working paycheck to paycheck, Barnett said, which deters them from taking the first step toward the license.
“There’s a lot of things you have to do to be a bus driver before you can get your first paycheck,” he said.
Responding to delays
Evergreen Public Schools and Vancouver Public Schools, the region’s largest school districts, both have a full roster of regular bus drivers but remain dozens short of their ideal pool of substitutes.
Last year, both districts changed bell schedules and school start times — in part because they needed need to develop more efficient bus routes.
Vancouver also consolidated several high school bus stops in January as persistent driver absences caused delays at several schools. It plans to do the same thing for its middle school routes this fall, Transportation Director AJ Panter said.
“We saw improvements on those delays,” Panter said. “We didn’t travel as deep into some neighborhoods as we used to, that helped us tremendously.”
Panter said he hasn’t heard any negative feedback from parents as a result of the changes.
Incentive programs
KWRL is offering prospective drivers various types of potential bonuses — $1,500 after six months on the job if they come in without a CDL and $3,000 after six months if they come in with the license. Drivers can also earn bonuses for recruiting other candidates.
Evergreen and Vancouver don’t offer similar financial bonuses but have ramped up advertising efforts at farmers markets and other events.
Evergreen, for example, has sent out several “Banner Buses” to such events where district bus drivers hand out information and applications directly to interested candidates.
Base pay rates for drivers at each district are between $30 and $31 per hour, while substitute pay rates vary. Evergreen paid $27.41 per hour to substitutes last year; Vancouver paid $23.77 per hour to substitutes in the 2022-2023 school year. KWRL pays its drivers $27.87 per hour as of this year.
Barnett is hopeful KWRL’s incentives and efforts to help candidates through the licensing process can soon help its driver shortage subside.
“With pension, health care and sick leave, this can be a decent job,” he said. “When people realize that and they see the value in that, and districts understand they’ve got to pay more, slowly you’ll see things come back up.”
