At least two school districts in Malheur County are struggling to find bus drivers as a nationwide shortage of drivers continues.
Ryan Hawkins, superintendent of the Nyssa School District, said the district is down by about three drivers this year.
Hawkins said the situation has prompted officials to shorten bus routes.
Also, he said the shortage of drivers has threatened transportation to out-of-town sporting events. Hawkins said he cannot pull a driver off a regular bus route to drive to a sporting event hours away.
“School has to come first,” he said.
Hawkins said school bus driver employment remains far below pre-pandemic levels for several reasons.
School bus drivers generally tend to come from an older age group that was more susceptible to the effects of Covid. Many drivers never returned after the pandemic, and some, Hawkins said, learned that they could use their commercial driver’s license to drive an onion or sugar beet truck and make more money.
He said bus drivers in Nyssa are not full-time employees. They work a split schedule, with hours at the beginning and the end of the school day.
Hawkins said drivers get at least two hours daily and can earn more by driving students to sporting events. He said the district has raised the hourly rate to $37 per hour and they offer drivers partial benefits to “sweeten the pot.”
Hawkins said Nyssa’s school bus drivers are vital to the district, which is committed to transporting every student. Hawkins said that in a rural community like Nyssa, it’s unsafe for students to walk to school, given the town’s few sidewalks and streetlights.
Vale Superintendent Alisha McBride said the extensive training – while necessary for student safety – is “one of the greatest challenges” in maintaining a full staff of drivers. The district has eight drivers and a substitute.
To get certified, a driver must pass a background check, a drug test, a physical, complete 15 hours of behind-the-wheel training and then pass two written tests and a skills test.
Depending on the day, up to 450 Vale students ride the bus to or from school, according to McBride.
She said the district has eight routes, but if they had another driver the district would add another route to shorten the ride time for students. McBride said the district is also looking to add more substitute drivers.
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