BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Just two weeks before the start of school, the Buffalo Public School District is facing a shortage of school bus drivers.
"Across this nation, we have have some issues with transportation," Dr. Tonja Williams, the district's superintendent, said.
Dr. Williams appointed a committee to help come up with both short term and long term solutions to the driver shortage.
The first proposed solution: reimbursing parents for bringing their children to school. The district released a survey asking how many parents would be interested, and 4,000 responded.
"Based on that information we know that there is interest and that interest can have an impact," a man appointed to the committee said.
But that wouldn't start until mid November, so the committee explored some more immediate solutions. One is to combine bus routes. This would eliminate 10 to 15 bus routes, and the need for 10 to 15 additional drivers.
The third short term solution is to open elementary schools 30 minutes earlier.
"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 said.
The last proposed short term solution is passing out NFTA bus passes to students.
However, there could be a long term solution to the school bus driver shortage around the corner.
"I have good news for the Buffalo bus driver training that was going on yesterday. They had over 150 new drivers that were being trained and that were in class for their certification for the bus driver," Terrance Heard, a Buffalo School Board member, said.
