CCS starts new transportation program amid bus driver shortage

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - Charlottesville City Schools is taking a new approach to address the ongoing shortage of bus drivers.

“We have fewer drivers than we had last school year,” Superintendent Doctor Royal Gurley said. “So immediately as a team, we said, ‘How can we address this issue? How can we lean into with the city and try to just kind of remedy some of this problem?”

One solution on the table is for students to use their own feet to get to school.

“So one of the things that we noticed is that our walk zones are shorter than cities that are comparable to us. So we said, ‘Well, what will happen if we expand the walk zone?’” Dr. Gurley said.

CCS is inviting students to bike or walk to and from school, while older kids will have the option to use Charlottesville Area Transit busses.

“We [district leaders] are ourselves walking, you know, walking a lot of the all of the places that we’re asking people to start walking and biking,” Gurley said. “Then the second part of that is ensuring that we are providing students with the access and whether that’s providing them with bikes or if there’s an intersection, making sure that there is a crossing guard available. That’s kind of the logical order that we’ve used thus far.”

Click here to check the dates to become familiar with the pedestrian courses alongside CCS district officials.

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