'Inexcusable': CVUSD buses late to pick up students amid driver shortage; parents angry

The Coachella Valley Unified School District Board of Education acknowledged Thursday that district school buses are routinely running late to pick up students, leaving them in the sun for more than an hour at times and getting them to school after classes begin.

“If our kids need to be transported, we hope they are picked up on time,” said Board President Blanca Hall. “If they are waiting, that starts off the day pretty badly for them. How can we expect them to learn if they are waiting for a bus for 45 minutes?”

Trustee Jesus Gonzalez said at Thursday’s board meeting that a big part of the problem is a school bus driver labor shortage, a nationwide dilemma that the U.S. Department of Education and Department of Transportation are trying to jointly address.

Gonzalez said that when bus drivers call in sick, there are sometimes not enough employees to take on all the district’s routes.

“To leave our children — there’s no compassion,” Gonzalez said. “It’s unbelievable. They’ve done it over and over again," he said, referring to bus drivers calling in sick and missing routes.

"It's inexcusable. It's human," he added, to leave kids waiting in the sun for their school buses.

The Desert Sun requested transportation logs to review the extent of the problem on June 1 after frustrated parents took to Facebook to complain about an hour-late bus headed for Saul Martinez Elementary School in Mecca and another late base returning from Toro Canyon Middle School in Thermal, but the district has not provided any information since.

“It’s 8:10 a.m. and the school bus has not arrived. Classes begin at 8:15 a.m. Kids have been waiting since 7 a.m. This has been happening since school began. Why are you not better prepared? Temperatures are already high,” Conchita Pozar wrote in Spanish in a Facebook post directed at the school district, some of its trustees and Saul Martinez Elementary.

Bus shortage a nationwide problem affecting multiple local districts

Gonzalez recommended on Thursday that the district consider the private sector to provide at least some student transportation.

However, school districts across California that contract bus services to the private sector have not been immune to driver shortages this year, including Palm Springs Unified. Palm Springs Unified contracts its bus services with First Student Charter Bus Rental, but there haven't been enough drivers for all its routes.

At times this spring, Palm Springs Unified students arrived at schools up to an hour late after waiting for bus drivers to finish dropping off students at another school before doubling back to pick them up, Abdul Bouzroud, the district’s transportation coordinator, told EdSource in March.

"Our struggle this year, and it's predicted it will continue, is school bus drivers, and finding enough school bus drivers to make sure we have enough drivers to serve our students," Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Brian Murray said at a February board meeting.

To combat the bus driver shortage, Palm Springs Unified went from providing 83 bus routes at the beginning of this school year to 72 routes in the spring. Starting in the fall, the district will implement new school start times chosen in part to maximize the efficiency of bus routes and drivers, The Desert Sun reported in February.

The median school bus driver salary in California is about $40,000 a year, according to salary.com. Recruiting school bus drivers is especially difficult considering that commercial truck drivers who work locally can make between $60,000 and $88,000 a year, according to the online job board Indeed.

CVUSD size makes transportation difficult

Meanwhile, Coachella Valley Unified is still searching for answers, and, given its size, it faces some unique challenges.

Coachella Valley Unified is expansive. It covers 1,250 square miles, most of which is rural farmland and desert in southeast Riverside County, including the communities of Thermal, Coachella, Oasis, Mecca, North Shore, Desert Center and Salton City.

The sheer size of the district has always made transportation difficult. The district's buses travel more than 1.3 million miles a year and transport more than 9,500 students each day, according to the district. In 2018, district mechanics and bus drivers complained about aging vehicles, frequent breakdowns and oil leaks.

More: School bus driver charged with abuse was investigated by sheriff's department 14 years earlier

More: Coachella Valley Unified calls itself a 'rural' school district, exempt from new start-time law

The district continues to invest in new vehicles, leaders explained Thursday night, but parents are requesting better logistics immediately.

Upset Coachella Valley Unified parents attended Thursday’s meeting demanding solutions. Summer school, with limited bus services, began Friday. The next school year begins in August.

“(The district) needs to be more prepared because the heat is strongest in August,” one parent said in Spanish during a public comment period at Thursday night’s board meeting, explaining that her daughter has waited for a bus at a pick-up location without any shade structure. “I don’t want my daughter waiting one hour (for a bus)... or saying that she doesn’t want to go to school.”

“I know there is a personnel shortage, but if buses can’t get kids to school, kids can’t eat (breakfast) and they can’t focus,” she continued.

Another issue is air conditioning on buses.

A community member asked after a presentation on next year’s proposed budget that the district allocate funds to make sure every school bus has air conditioning.

“I don't know why we still have buses without air conditioning in the desert,” said Trustee Silvia Paz.

Superintendent Luis Valentino said the district is in the process of making sure its entire fleet of buses has air conditioning, but, for now, buses with air conditioning are prioritized for the longest routes and buses that serve special needs students. A district staffer added that the district has ordered 31 buses this year with air conditioning.

Jonathan Horwitz covers education for The Desert Sun. Reach him at jonathan.horwitz@desertsun.com or @Writes_Jonathan.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Coachella Valley Unified school buses late amid driver shortage