NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. — Pasco Schools Superintendent Kurt Browning expressed his desperation Tuesday evening when it comes to a shortage of school bus drivers to transport kids to class.
"Our back is against the wall when it comes to getting kids to school on time," Browning said after a School Board workshop scheduled to address the shortage of bus drivers across the county. "We have looked at incentivizing drivers, we have looked at using the National Guard. We’ve contacted the state, but we were denied because we don’t have a state of emergency declared."
But Browning says kids missing out on time in the classroom is an emergency, even causing some students to fall behind.
For that reason, the district is exploring doing whatever it takes to find a solution.
“That’s my motivation – making sure each one of the kids we serve gets the same opportunity as those families that have on-time buses.”
In a workshop Tuesday evening, school board members heard just how bad the problem actually is.
The district reports for its 421 bus routes, on a typical day it's short, on average, around 87 drivers.
To combat the problem, the district wants to stage school start times, with classes beginning at 7:10 a.m., 8:10 a.m., 9:10 a.m. and as late as 10:10 a.m. to allow the existing bus drivers extra time to get all the students to class on time.
“Nobody, including the superintendent, likes this plan,” Browning said. “The school board doesn’t like it, I don’t like it. But we don’t know of any other option than to look into adding a fourth bell tier.”
But for now, the superintendent says it seems to be the most feasible option until the district is able to find more bus drivers to keep up with the county’s steady growth.
“We need our we need to play our part to make sure all of our kids that we serve are in their seat when that bell rings and they’re ready to learn.”
Pasco County School Board members now have two weeks to decide what they want do next, before voting at their upcoming school board meeting the morning of November 2.