Late Again

School buses all around the Clark County School District district are keeping kids sitting on the side of the road waiting to be picked up. The bus driver shortage is low, meaning kids can not get to school on time, and some are giving up and skipping school. Parents, students, and teachers are being affected by this situation.

The school bus shortage is out of control, the district is short over 200 bus drivers causing students to wait over half an hour or more to get to school.

But, why is there a shortage?

The pandemic is a huge issue for many reasons. Students could not go to in-person school for so long, so, the district could not train many new bus drivers without risking the chances of COVID-19.

Parents and guardians are very angry about this situation. Their kids are sitting alone on the sidewalk some waiting for hours. This has ignited a safety issue, as well as, an educational one for many parents and guardians. Many cannot drive their kids to school because of work, personal or financial issues

Students are not happy about it either. Logan Whitis, a student at our Sierra Vista explains his experience with the late buses. “It makes me mad. I hate missing school because I miss the start of the class and my assignments,” He adds, “I even missed an algebra test and the instructions.”

Students are missing classes and tests because they do not make it to school in time. Although the school excuses students from being marked tardy or absent, students still miss assignments and instructions..

Teachers also are getting affected by this.  Many students are coming to their classes extremely late, and because of that, they are having a lot of missing work from not being in class. Students are starting to slowly fall behind in many of their classes causing them to fail or get a low grade.

Transportation for sports is also a major problem with the buses as well. Many of our sports teams have had to cancel games or reschedule many times. Athletes are not happy about this; they train and train, but then have to either reschedule or they can’t even play at all. The stress can make them worry if they are even going to be able to play. CSSD is letting the schools reschedule the games to weekends so more bus drivers will be available if the school allows it, then they can play; but if the school doesn’t allow it, then the game is canceled.

CCSD is now working with two new transportation companies and is very open about asking for help from anybody who is registered to become a bus driver. They are now working with RTC (Reginal Transportation Commission) and RideOn.

They are working very hard and trying their hardest to get us all and pick us all up as soon as possible.

As a community, we must try to keep our patience and hope this gets fixed soon.