CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – Not unlike other school districts around the country, the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System is struggling with a shortage of bus drivers, in one recent case leading to children not getting home until 6 p.m.

CMCSS is operating with only about 70% of its transportation workforce, according to Anthony Johnson, chief communications officer. The district needs about 100 more drivers to return to 100% capacity in transportation.

The labor shortage has led some school employees to get behind the wheel and earn their bus driving certifications. But that’s not enough to get the kids to and from school on time – and for some parents not knowing when their kids will get home.

Punctuality issue

Michael Ryan has two children in the schools, one at Oakland Elementary and another at Rossview Middle.

His daughter at Oakland has had bus delays since the beginning of the school year. Their family lives about 15 minutes from Oakland, give or take with traffic.

His child that attends Rossview Middle, though, never has delays.

“Time after time, we literally have to go to the school to pick my daughter up before they release just to make sure that they are home on time and to make sure she doesn’t miss after-school activities, because we can’t count on the bus to be here before 4:30 in the afternoon or 5 o’clock in the afternoon,” Ryan said.

Usually, Ryan said the bus is about an hour late. But on Friday, the children in his neighborhood didn’t get home until 6 p.m.

“They call it a driver shortage, but they will literally take a school bus that is supposed to run this route, use it to move other kids, and then leave our kids sitting at the school for over an hour at a time, and I guess on Friday they were at the school for over an hour,” Ryan said.

Ryan said he called every number listed on the CMCSS’s Operations Department webpage, trying to get information. He said he never received a call back.

“I almost called the police trying to figure out where the kids were, because all of the dispatch offices or anybody that you could call from the school has already been home for the day for hours by the time the kids are missing,” Ryan said.

“I honestly don’t know where my kid is sequestered at the school while they wait for a bus to show up,” he said. “I don’t know if they’re being kept inside, outside.”

‘Communication breakdown’

Johnson said he would look into the situation at Oakland.

“Families should always receive notifications when their child’s bus is going to be late, and what you’ve described would be a communication breakdown,” Johnson told Clarksville Now.

“In the afternoon if a bus is late, students are supervised by employees at the school until the bus arrives. Each school is required to identify employees who will stay at school with students until all buses are cleared,” Johnson continued.

Ryan said the notification his family received on Friday only described a 10-minute delay on top of the normal hour delay.

“If a bus is running late due to a situation that has occurred during the route, the bus driver is to communicate with transportation dispatchers who will send the delay message to families,” Johnson said.

Johnson said that the driver shortage is causing delays for both morning and afternoon routes, but elementary students are typically more impacted since they are the last routes.

“Many of our drivers are making ‘double runs,’ which means they have already run full routes and then run an additional routes to cover for the absence of a drivers,” Johnson said. “This alone is causing delays. Add to this any traffic issues, construction, blocked roads, bus mechanical issues, behavior issues on a bus requiring a driver to pull over and/or request law enforcement assistance, additional drivers out sick, etc. and the delays can be even more extensive.”

The district is hiring bus drivers with pay starting at $16.27 an hour. Applicants must have or obtain a CDL-Class B License, be 25 years old and have a high school diploma or equivalent. To find out more and how to apply, visit the school district’s website.