By Hannah Posner, Roselyn Alvarez-Pedraza, Sofia Alvarez-Pedraza and Yaderlin Bojoy Aguacuata
Senior Charlotte Turner rides bus 616. When it didn’t run on Wednesday, January 17, the first day of the new semester, she was unable to find a ride to school.
“As a senior, it’s really important that I keep my grades up as well as my attendance, so for me to miss the first day of new classes, it had me stressing out,” said Turner.
For the past two weeks, many Riverside students who usually ride the bus had to find alternate transportation to school.
In a January 17 Instagram post, Durham Public Schools (DPS) stated “Due to a significant bus driver shortage today, DPS is asking parents to assist with transporting their students to school.”
DPS posted again asking parents to transport their children to school for January 18 and 19.
“I think DPS has been pretty selfish stating that parents should get their kids to school, when it’s so much more complicated than that,” said Turner. “DPS shouldn’t just assume that everyone has access to ways of getting to and from school.”
On Wednesday, January 17, According to CBS17, nearly 50 DPS bus drivers did not cover their routes due to a district-wide pay dispute.
Parents received emails and voice messages that day and several days after saying that if buses do not run, they will have to find other ways to drop off and pick up their students.
According to the DPS website, there is a limited number of buses running for all schools. Again today, buses 37, 131, 132, 616, 627, 44, 1299, 207, 246, 26, 213, 137, 117 and 115 were not running this morning.
Many bus drivers have shown up to work, but are unable to drive their routes because supervisors and mechanics are not there.
DPS accidentally overpaid some employees from October through December, and communicated the mistake to classified staff on January 12, according to ABC11.
In October, DPS implemented a new pay structure for classified employees (custodians, cafeteria workers, transportation supervisors, mechanics, bus drivers, front office staff, treasurers, occupational therapists, instructional assistants, etc.) that increases pay based on experience serving in the public school system.
DPS meant to discount private sector and out-of-state experience from additional pay increases, but did not make this change. This resulted in 1,300 out of 3,600 classified staff being overpaid since October.
All classified staff have increased pay from last year, but 1,300 of them will see a decrease in $80-$1,000 per month moving forward.
The staff shortages have impacted schools, too. Riverside has experienced staffing shortages in the cafeteria and front office, but transportation issues have impacted students the most.
“Unfortunately, attendance had decreased because children cannot get here or get picked up,” said assistant principal Jasmine McKoy. “They might be able to get here but they cannot get picked up at 4:15.”
More parents picking up their kids also increased traffic on campus.
“On a normal day it takes 15-20 minutes to clear up traffic,” said assistant principal Greg Goble. “Now it’s probably closer to 45 minutes or longer, probably twice as long to clear up the mess.”
Photo credit: Pexels
