Bus breakthrough: TCAPS extends BATA program to stem driver shortage

Feb. 11—TRAVERSE CITY — The largest school district in northern Michigan teamed up with a local transportation authority to make up for gaps in their transportation service caused by a shortage of bus drivers.

Like most schools in the region, Traverse City Area Public Schools, which covers 270 square miles and serves about 9,000 northern Michigan students, struggled to hire and keep on enough bus drivers to fully staff their transportation department in recent years. This led to consolidated and extended routes, but the number of bus drivers on staff at TCAPS recently hit a low point, causing the school district to cut some afternoon bus services and partner with the Bay Area Transportation Authority.

"BATA really stepped forward to help as much as they could," TCAPS Communications Manager Ginger Smith said.

On Jan. 23, TCAPS adopted a new transportation schedule in which Central High School receives afternoon transportation on Monday, Tuesday and every other Friday while West Senior High School receives afternoon transportation Wednesday, Thursday and every other Friday.

Students at Traverse City High School are typically shuttled to and from Central or West high schools in the mornings and afternoons. TC High students get shuttled to a nearby BATA stop at the Northwest Education Services Career Tech Center in Traverse City on afternoons when their home high school does not have transportation service.

All morning transportation and all transportation at TCAPS middle and elementary schools have remained unchanged.

TCAPS also sends a late bus every day to the high school that does not have afternoon transportation to pick up any students who were unable to get home from school. The TCAPS administration is not aware of many students using this late bus route, Smith said.

Smith said there also is no indication that the recent changes to TCAPS transportation services have impacted attendance. Community members have helped students get to and from school and have been patient through these changes, which the district is thankful for, Smith said.

Since Jan. 23, TCAPS also partnered with BATA to give students free rides — the school is charged for their ridership — which does not include BATA's on-demand services. BATA also modified some of its routes to better align with students' needs and get student riders as close to their homes in the afternoon as possible, BATA Communications Director Eric Lingaur said.

Between Jan. 23 and Jan. 31, BATA provided 234 rides to TCAPS students, not including their free Bayline route, Lingaur said. That's an average of about 30 student riders per day.

TCAPS's partnership with BATA was set to only last until Friday, but TCAPS has just extended that timeline. TCAPS will now continue this schedule and partnership until the school district's spring break, which begins March 27.

BATA also has struggled to hire and maintain a full staff of bus drivers in recent years as well, Lingaur said. Right now, BATA is running 75 to 80 percent of its services, and would need about 14 more drivers to return to its previous full capacity.

Like some other jobs within schools, bus drivers have odd hours — split-shifts between the morning and afternoon — and they require background checks as well as expensive qualifications.

School districts and transportation authorities in the region have made several attempts to make the job more appealing, including sign-on bonuses, paid training and offers for other work around the district to bring them up to full-time employees.

Some of these offered incentives have worked, but many school districts in the region are still struggling to fully staff their transportation departments.

Smith said that the TCAPS administration is hopeful and confident that they will continue to hire drivers and bring transportation services back to full capacity after spring break. As of earlier this week, Smith said that the school district has already hired three new drivers, who will need a few weeks of training before they can start covering routes.

As previously reported, Benzie County Central Schools had a similar partnership with Benzie Bus, but this is the first time that BATA and TCAPS have officially teamed up like this, and it could lead to future partnerships as well, Smith and Lingaur said.

"I think it makes sense to partner like this to provide transportation to students," Lingaur said.

Lingaur added that the partnership also shows students the benefits of using public transportation and may make them more inclined to use BATA in the future as well.

But Lingaur and Smith both said it's currently unclear exactly how a future partnership would look like and what TCAPS's future needs will be.