Enough bus drivers? Mostly. Enough substitutes? Hardly.
Aug. 31—There was a time not so long ago when school bus drivers were taken for granted. Less so for substitute teachers, with Times Leader stories of shortages dating back more than 20 years — though then the problem was spotty, with some districts struggling to devise protocols that assured all those on large substitute lists got a fair crack at being assigned to openings.
When it comes to who's driving the bus, interviews with area superintendents suggest that shortage is declining with the COVID-19 risks.
The substitute teacher shortage?
Short-term solutions have helped quite a bit, those interviewed said, but the problem remains, and has potential to get worse.
The wheels on the bus
Driver shortages became an issue as students returned to school in force last year following the recurring COVID-19 disruptions. As more students attended in person, shortages arose with drivers getting sick, or just opting out of the job.
Districts started offering signing bonuses and reaching out other ways to get more drivers. The state sent letters to people with Commercial Driver's Licenses (CDL) encouraging them to consider driving for local school districts. Some districts in the state and across the country turned to the National Guard looking for help.
A Joint State Government Commission released a report this June recommending — among other things — a new federal school-bus-specific CDL, a state review of the school transportation subsidy program, and a reduction of the distance districts must, by law, transport students to non-public schools.
Districts are not mandated to provide student transportation. But if they do, they are required to transport any student within their district to any non-public school within 10 miles of district boundaries.
The report also recommended better salary and benefits of school bus drivers, and stronger policies regarding misbehavior on a bus. Anecdotally, student bus misbehavior increased locally last year. Hanover Area suspended bus transportation from the high school to Wilkes-Barre Area Career and Technical Center for several days after fights on the bus.
Yet as the new school year begins, superintendents contacted all said they were beginning the year with enough drivers for regular daily runs. Districts rarely operate their own bus service anymore, contracting with outside companies, so superintendents were relaying information provided by contractors.
The important asterisk: Some weren't so sure about drivers for extra-curricular activities. Crestwood's Natasha Milazzo smiled and said that's still a bit uncertain. Wyoming Valley West Superintendent Dave Tosh and newly appointed Transportation Director Anthony Dicton were more vocal.
"Our biggest issue in transportation is field trips," Dicton said. There may be enough drivers for daily routes, but no extras, resulting in field trips returning to the school by 2 p.m. so the driver can handle a route after dismissal. Previously, Dicton said, field trips could return as late as 4 or 5 p.m.
Even when a driver isn't available for a daily route, Dicton stressed, all students are picked up, though it may be later than expected because another driver will drop off students and double back to cover another route.
How did districts manage to line up enough drivers (more or less) this year? Milazzo and Dicton said that some drivers who had left the job have returned, perhaps because the pandemic threat has subsided. Greater Nanticoke Area Superintendent Ron Grevera echoed that, and said last year the district sent out messages via the automated Skylert system that helped recruit a few drivers.
While the state took modest steps to increase the pool of drivers, Dicton said it has not made the big moves that could help: Changing the requirements to becoming a driver and increasing state money to help cover costs.
"They increased school funding, but not transportation funding."
A head of the class
By comparison, the state has taken effective steps to alleviate the substitute teacher shortage.
Started in 2016 the Guest Teacher Program has been run through the Luzerne Intermediate Unit for area districts. The program allows a person with a bachelor's degree to take some training, mostly online and get an emergency certification as a day-to-day substitute teacher in any subject in any grade. There are limitations on days a person can teach, and the certification must be renewed annually.
More recently, the state passed Act 91 that allows students enrolled in college education majors to serve as day substitutes if they are 25 or older and "have completed 60 semester hours or equivalent courses at an accredited college or university in Pennsylvania," LIU Executive Director Anthony Grieco said. The LIU has more than 20 people ready to serve in classrooms through the program this year.
Lastly, Grieco said, this year the state is allowing retired educators to return to service and substitute for up to 180 days
The Guest Teacher program "continues to be the 'go to' program for substitutes," Grieco said. "We have already processed nearly 100 emergency certificates for the upcoming school year."
Dallas School District Superintendent Tom Duffy estimated 25% to 30% of substitutes signed up this year are from the Guest Teacher program. Up to 20% on the list are teachers who retired from the district. This has gone a long way to getting enough substitutes to make Duffy reasonably comfortable the district won't suffer any major shortage.
Tosh was more emphatic about the value of the LIU's offering. "When Guest Teacher program started I was skeptical how much it would help us," he said. "It's been a godsend." Both he and Duffy said Act 91 has helped as well. Yet Tosh fears even with that help, Wyoming Valley West will be short of substitutes again this year. He expects to start the year with 7 to 10 available.
He recalled a time, many years ago, when the district had a sub list approaching 30. Now, "if you said we have 15 substitutes daily I'd be doing cartwheels over the Market Street Bridge."
When there aren't any substitutes for a class, Tosh said, the first choice is to split those students among other classes for the same grade and/or subject. If you have four grade 5 classes and one lacks a substitute, that class may be served by spreading the students among the three rooms with teachers.
If class numbers are already high — as is likely to happen at Dana Elementary this year because it will absorb the largest number of students from the closing of Schuyler Elementary — moving students to other classes becomes problematic, Tosh said, because the number of youngsters in each class could become unacceptably high. Sometimes it's possible to move students from the hypothetical grade 5 into rooms for grade 4 and 6, but that's not a good fit for any duration.
"There are times when we may go two, three and even four class periods where students are not getting that direct instruction."
The "last resort" is to put students lacking a teacher into the auditorium with a Chromebook computer "and hope they work on assignments, but that's not always the case." And in recent years there have been times the district had "three, four or five classes" in an auditorium at one time.
The state's efforts have provided short-term relief, Tosh said, and his district, like others have been fortunate to find enough full-time teachers to fill needs. But there is a long-term trend that has yet to be addressed: Fewer future teachers in the pipeline.
In March, a deputy secretary of the state Department of Education told legislators that, state-wide, there has been a 66% drop in new teaching certificates issued over the last 11 years, and that the number of undergraduates in education majors dropped by the same percentage.
"The state really needs to take a good hard look at it," Tosh said, or teacher shortages — both full-time and substitute — will only get worse. He suggested more tuition support for those going into education, or some other incentive.
"It's a tough nut to crack."
Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish
