Sara Bendoraitis said her children have faced consistent school bus delays in Prince George’s County and this year is no different.
Prince George’s County Public Schools began the school year short of about 140 full-time equivalent bus drivers, PGCPS transportation director Keba Baldwin told The Diamondback. The school system has had difficulty recruiting and retaining their bus driving staff since the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.
As a result, bus drivers are being asked to cover additional routes, causing students and families to wait for delayed pick up and drop off times.
“It’s not the individual schools that are doing this. They’re doing their best to manage and let people know what’s happening and try and be there for the kids as best they can,” Bendoraitis, vice president of Hyattsville Elementary School’s parent teacher association, said. “But the fact that we have not been able to figure this out and make dramatic changes just speaks to a complete failure of leadership at the county level.”
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PGCPS’s transportation system is responsible for getting about 83,500 students to and from school throughout the year, according to PGCPS’s transportation department’s website.
“We are in the top ten in the nation in terms of the largest school district for transporting students,” Baldwin said. “It’s a complex system and we can’t do it without bus drivers.”
The school system alerted families to the shortage through a press release on Aug. 22, saying counties nationwide are also experiencing similar challenges.
“We want to be clear and transparent with our families from day one,” interim superintendent Shawn Joseph wrote in the news release. “Your child will get to school safely, but in some cases, it may take longer than planned. Our commitment is to keep families informed so they know what to expect.”
PGCPS also announced that they increased hourly pay for transportation staff. Bus driver trainees are now earning $20 instead of $18, and substitute bus drivers are earning $22 instead of $20. Substitute bus attendants are now earning $16.50 an hour, instead of their previous rate of $15.75.
PGCPS bus drivers go through a six to eight week onboarding and training process before they can begin driving students, Baldwin said. While the county has hired additional bus drivers, they will not be able to help supplement the shortage until October or November, according to Baldwin.
As of Thursday, the school system has had 48 people reach the last phase of the training process since the county’s first day of school on Aug. 26, Baldwin said. But they still need to complete the road training and final road test to become a certified driver, he added.
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Hyattsville Elementary School Principal Richard McKee said he thinks the county is working to address the shortage and issues with bus scheduling “actively and aggressively.” He also said he has seen an improvement in timeliness and organization so far this year, especially after an additional bus driver was assigned to the school.
“I’ve heard lots of positive comments from my families as well as many of our students about the customer service that the bus drivers are providing,” McKee said. “The bus drivers are being friendly. They’re really trying to help students.”
PGCPS is also in the process of transitioning to a new bus tracking app, called Chipmunk, after the current app, StopFinder, did not meet the county’s needs. Baldwin said StopFinder did not always report the location of buses and their arrival times accurately.
Bendoraitis said her PTA helped organize WhatsApp group chats for parents to alert each other about the status of their children’s buses to compensate for the app’s shortcomings.
Baldwin said PGCPS aims to finish implementing the new app by the end of the first semester of school, beginning with transportation runs for students with mobility accommodations.
“I just want families to know that we are here. We want to be transparent about what we’re doing,” Baldwin said. “We know that we have a shortage so buses are going to be running late, and we want to notify you when they’re running late, and if that’s not being done, you got to let us know so that we can address it.”
