Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools has been dealing all year with an ongoing bus-driver shortage that’s left many routes uncovered — most notably last month, when 29 of the district’s 52 drivers were out sick with COVID-19 at the same time.
What has the transportation team done to keep getting kids to and from school?
“We do what we’ve got to do, and we do it every day,” says Sharon Croom.
Croom is CHCCS transportation team’s assistant operations manager. Around the office, she’s sometimes known as “The General.”
“We start out at 5:30 in the mornings, we leave at 6 every afternoon,” Croom describes. “We come in, we just step [up], and do whatever we have to do.”
The bus driver shortage is not specific to Chapel Hill-Carrboro — it’s something that school districts have been facing nationwide. In the face of it, Croom says the entire transportation team has gone above and beyond to keep things flowing as smoothly as possible.
“I cannot stress enough how thankful I am for the drivers that we have,” she says. “A bus can break down or somebody is late getting to a school, and another driver will come in and say, ‘Hey, I can get those kids.’ Or, ‘Hey, I can go do that run.’ And that means a lot to us. I am truly grateful for our drivers, they have really come through for us.”
Recently, the school board took a big step to try to address the issue, raising the starting pay for bus drivers from $16.62 an hour up to an even $20. That took Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools from being one of the lowest-paying districts in the area for drivers to being one of the highest — and Croom says that’s already paying off.
“We have people calling in, wanting to come [work] that don’t have [Commercial Drivers Licenses],” she describes. “We have to send them to class, so it takes some time to get them in. We’ve had a few people come in that already had licenses — this week we had a driver come on, last week we had a driver come on.
“It’s helping some,” Croom adds. “Not as many people as we would like to be coming, but we have three people in class. It’s looking up, it’s looking better.”
And when asked what message she had for parents in the district, Croom has this to say:
“We had a hard time at this time, but things are going to get better. And our drivers are doing everything that they possibly can do to get your kids to and from school safely and in a timely manner.”
If you’re interested in applying as a bus driver, visit the transportation page at of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools website.
Photo via The Town of Chapel Hill.
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