“Viewpoints” is a place on Chapelboro where local people are encouraged to share their unique perspectives on issues affecting our community. If you’d like to contribute a column on an issue you’re concerned about, interesting happenings around town, reflections on local life — or anything else — send a submission to viewpoints@wchl.com.

 

Students Deserve Better: The Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools Bus Driver Shortage

 

A perspective from Tobias Wagoner

 

Dear Chapelboro Reader,

Many people may not be aware of the recent bus shortages in the area. There is a desperate need for more bus drivers in the Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools. There just aren’t enough buses to get all the students to school. Additionally, not only are there not enough buses, but many substitute buses are outdated. Furthermore, driving a bus must be the bus driver’s only job, not simply a secondary job. The CHCCS Bus System has about half of the bus drivers than it did before the pandemic! Kids wait, sometimes for more than an hour just for a ride home. Sometimes the buses never even arrive. While some students have the luxury of biking or walking to school, many students live miles away and don’t have the option to. The CHCCS Transportation won’t even cover people less than two miles away on a normal day without a shortage! Kids will (and do) walk for miles just to go to and from school. My friend, yesterday, was going to have to walk five miles to get home. Instead, my dad picked him up with permission. The bus system must get better. Students deserve better.

My bus was in the shop for three months, and we had to ride an old sub bus. The sub bus actually stalled on a small onramp to the freeway, and we had to restart it. The seats were small, the roof low. According to busboss.com, “Modern buses tend to have a wide range of additional safety features that weren’t common in decades past. These include more lights, better driver feedback systems, electronics integration such as GPS systems, and potentially seatbelts.” We finally got the original bus back, and it is so much better. We need newer buses. This can’t keep happening.

On the 20th of February, all of the buses for McDougle Middle School were delayed by at least one hour. There was an announcement over the intercom to call home and see if parents can pick students up. Is it fair for students to wait for hours for just a way to get home after a long day of learning? What about parents who have to work? Many parents in the area can not take a break from work, and go pick their child. That is why the buses are there in the first place!

Now what can be done about this? As Barbara Jordan says in her famous speech from the 1976 Democratic Convention, “I could recite these problems, and then I could sit down and offer no solutions.” An imperative solution is to raise the bus driver’s pay. With this solution being said, CHCCS has already raised the pay, and this is a step in the right direction. This amount of pay is above all other school districts in the area, but it still isn’t a living wage in the United States for a family, according to livingwage.mit.edu. This needs to be the only job these drivers do, not a secondary job. Raising their pay, making the buses more comfortable for the drivers (and students), will help resolve this issue. The CHCCS School Board needs to be willing to spend the costs, not just postpone the problem, but solve it!

This problem must be fixed. Students can not be waiting for over an hour just to go home when their time is also valuable. Many students have homework and extracurricular commitments after school. Our district needs newer buses and more bus drivers, now more than ever. It is important that people stand up at local school boards, telling them that we need this change. We have to fix this for the benefit of the students and parents.

 

Tobias Wagoner

McDougle Middle School, Chapel Hill NC.

7th Grade, age 12.


“Viewpoints” on Chapelboro is a recurring series of community-submitted opinion columns. All thoughts, ideas, opinions and expressions in this series are those of the author, and do not reflect the work or reporting of 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com.