PASCO, Wash. – The Pasco School District is asking for your patience and understanding as Pasco school bus drivers are driving extra routes to make sure students get to school.
According to an article by Education Week schools nationwide are experiencing driver shortages.
The start of school is upon us and Dan Gottschalk the PSD transportation manager and a driver himself said they need to hire at least 30 more drivers to fill in their routes.
“We’re always looking,” said Gottschalk. “We’re out recruiting anyway we can.”
According to Gottschalk, he believes the need for competition is the main reason for the lack of drivers.
“Everybody needs drivers to deliver everything these days,” he said. “It created a lot more competition, great for the consumer but for us, not so good.”
Gottschalk said to become a driver you need the following:
Pass a Department of Transportation physical Pass a Drug ScreeningObtain a Class CDL (If hired PSD will pay for the CDL)Not have more than 2 traffic infractions in 5 years
According to Gottschalk as a hiring incentive, they’ve raised the salaries to over $21 an hour.
Gottschalk has picked up routes himself to fill in the gaps.
“Almost every single driver is doubling their routes,” said Gottschalk. “The administrators, we all have CDL’s. I’m driving a route this afternoon.”
Jessica Ursua, the Interim Transportation Director for the Pasco School District said it’s been challenging.
“It puts some stress on the entire department,” said Ursua. “Luckily for us, we do have an awesome staff, awesome drivers that are here every day to come up with the end goal of getting our kids to and from school.”
According to Ursua, they are actively finding new ways to recruit.
“We’ve done career fairs and job fairs,” she said. “We plan on doing one maybe hosting it here in our department is the next step we would like to do.”
Gottschalk said the department moved into its new building two months ago.
The building is named after Richard L. Lenhart a bus driver who was killed while transporting students home from school. The building is located at 3410 Stearman Ave in Pasco.
Gottschalk said this job is important to him but also for the kids.
“We don’t know what their story is at home, but we do know that if you’re telling them good morning and have a good day and all of that. “That you can make a difference in their lives and that’s really good too.”
