Albemarle rerouting buses to help get more students to school amid driver shortage
ALBEMARLE COUNTY, Va. (WVIR) - Albemarle County Public Schools says it is redoing routes, which is allowing more students to get rides on school buses while the search for drivers continues.
ACPS says it is actively taking students off the bus waiting list, which initially contained around 900 kids at the start of the school year.
As of Monday, September 25, the county says that list is down to 189 students who don’t have bus service at all.
“The last couple of weeks, we’ve removed about 300 kids that have come off the manifest, because they haven’t been on the bus for 10 days,” ACPS Spokesperson Phil Giaramita said. “When there’s a lower volume of children riding, there’s not a need for as many bus stops. We reconfigure the routes, we can make the routes shorter, more impactful, and that reduces some time travel time.”
ACPS is hoping to add two or three drivers next month, but more drivers may be leaving soon.
“December is a traditional retirement date for a lot of employees, including bus drivers, and so we’re expecting it probably are going to be some retirements this year,” Giaramita said.
A job fair at Northside Library on Friday, Sept. 29, may help the county fill the bus driver gap.
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