BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — As summer comes to an end and school starts back up, school districts across Western New York are dealing with a school bus driver shortage.
"The district is anticipating a bus driver shortage to begin the school year," Dr. Darren Brown-Hall, superintendent of the Williamsville Central School District, said.
"Bus drivers and support staff, that is definitely a dire need. We're looking for bus drivers. We're looking for bus aides," Michael Laurria, the Assistant Superintendent of Grand Island Central Schools, said.
Because of that shortage, several districts are making changes.
Buffalo Public Schools appointed a committee to explore solutions to the school bus driver shortage. Two of their immediate suggestions were to combine bus routes and open elementary schools 30 minutes earlier, meaning some students may have to wake up up to an hour earlier to catch the bus.
"Which would enable parents to be able to drop off their children if they would like a half an hour early, and the biggest impact would be the buses would be able to run more runs," a man on the committee told the Buffalo School Board.
Frontier Central School District has changed the start times for all of its schools. The high school will begin class at 7:05 a.m. and will end at 1:46 in the afternoon. The middle school will start at 7:40 a.m. and go until 2:21 p.m. Students at Big Tree and Pinehurst Elementary schools will start at 8 in the morning and end at 3 p.m. Students at Blasdell and Cloverbank will go from 9:15 a.m. to 3:45 p.m.
Students at Niagara Falls High School will now be starting at 7:55 a.m., 20 minutes earlier than last year. They'll get out 30 minutes earlier.
"We have to adjust bus times because we're a district that needs 80 drivers, and the contractor has 40. The math doesn't add up. The only way to do this is to ask each driver to make two runs in the morning and two runs in the afternoon," Mark Laurrie, the superintendent of Niagara Falls City School District.
However, there are numerous districts that are not changing their start times, and that are not facing many issues when it comes to the school bus driver shortage.
"We feel good about where we are from a hiring perspective in Hamburg. I know our bus contractor, Fisher Bus, is continuing to hire drivers. I think we're still a couple short," Michael Cornell, the superintendent of Hamburg Schools said.
Hamburg Central School District has not changed their start times.
West Seneca Central Schools District said times will be similar to last year for students attending the same schools.
Starpoint Central School District said they don't anticipate changing start times, but said individual routes could face delays because of a lack of substitute drivers.
The Williamsville School Districtis asking for some leniency as they work out the kinks at the start of the year.
"Due to the need for daily bus changes, we ask for flexibility," Dr. Brown-Hall said.
