Union County schools face bus driver shortage

Jul. 29—LA GRANDE — Optimal hours. Weekends off. No experience required. A recruitment bonus check of up to $1,500.

Even with these promised perks, schools in Union County are facing a bus driver shortage — and a strict deadline for hiring as the school year rapidly approaches.

"It's been an ongoing effort to get more drivers," said Chuck Moore, regional vice president of Mid Columbia Bus Company, which provides bus drivers to schools in La Grande, Union, Cove and North Powder. "It's been a struggle for a while, but now we're advertising everywhere we can and asking anyone we can."

Mid Columbia Bus Company has 28 bus drivers in Union County, but they are hoping to hire four more in the near future. These drivers typically serve around 1,400 students in the county, according to Kathaleen Maley, La Grande manager of MidCo.

The La Grande School District is the company's biggest client in the county, with 2,300 students across all seven of its schools. In the 2019-20 school year, 1,170 students in the district regularly rode a bus to and from school, Maley said.

According to Scott Carpenter, assistant superintendent of the La Grande School District, bus driver shortages have never stopped students from having access to a bus route.

"Routes are built every year based on the needs of the community," Carpenter said. "Historically, we've always been able to help families who need the bus and we think this year is going to be the same."

The school district hasn't yet created the routes for the upcoming school year, but MidCo is working hard to ensure they will be able to provide enough drivers.

The company is offering $1,000 signing bonuses to applicants who don't have their CDL and $1,500 to those who have a CDL, the highest signing bonus the company has ever offered, according to Moore.

Although the pandemic exacerbated the driver shortage, Moore said that recruitment and retention have been issues for many years. He estimates that 30% of new bus drivers leave within the first two years of employment.

"We've got drivers in La Grande that have been there 20-plus years, but we also have some that last a year or two," he said. "If they stay for a couple of years, we usually keep them, but there's considerable turnover in those first two years."

The bus driver shortage isn't new, and it isn't just local. According to a survey conducted in May by youth transportation company HopSkipDrive, nearly four-fifths of school transportation professionals in the United States said they were experiencing a bus driver shortage.

Bus drivers leave their jobs for various reasons. Some leave to seek full-time employment, while others quit because they didn't understand what the job entailed.

"They can be driving anywhere between 20 and 84 students in a day, it can be trying at times," Carpenter said. "My hat goes off to them."

Another reason that residents are hesitant to apply is because of the drug testing requirement, Moore said.

"You cannot drive a school bus and smoke pot," he said. "Even though it's legal in Oregon, it's a federal law. So a lot of people who might have applied to work for us, they're just going to go work at a restaurant that doesn't drug test at all."

Because the job is part-time, Moore said they often hire retirees or other older residents. This posed a problem last year when several drivers retired due to COVID-19 risks.

"COVID put us further behind than a normal school year," Moore said. "When COVID hit, most people getting seriously ill were senior citizens, so we had some people retire."

Applications have been slow to come in. The bus company has placed advertisements on the radio and has advertised positions at local events, such as Crazy Days in La Grande, hoping to draw in more applicants.

"Applications have been hit or miss," Maley said. "Sometimes they'll call, and I'm told they're only looking for seasonal work or hoping to get unemployment."

On multiple occasions, staff members at the bus company have had to fill in for bus drivers who could not make their route. Moore said that hiring more drivers would help the company provide better service.

"We're trying to find enough drivers so our dispatchers and managers don't have to go out," Moore said. "They're all licensed and trained but we don't want them on the road if we don't have to."

Maley agreed. She said she is optimistic that the company will soon be able to operate with a full staff and that new applicants will see the appeal of driving a school bus.

"I think people get intimidated or think it's hard, but it's not," Maley said. "We make sure people are fully trained before they go out. It can be intimidating, but it's very rewarding, every day is different, that's why I enjoy it so much."