Bloomington schools still facing bus driver shortage

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- Nearly two months into the new school year and at least one district still doesn't have enough bus drivers.

Over the summer districts across the state faced a shortage of bus drivers.

The Bloomington school district said over the summer it was short about 20 drivers, which is roughly double in any given year. Leaders said while things have gotten better, they still need help.

Bloomington, like many districts, over the summer had a big hiring push.

They upped the pay and benefits and made the schedules more flexible to try and attract more drivers.

Since then, the district's Director of Operations Tim Rybak said they've had to contract out 12 routes and condensed six routes, which is not ideal, but it puts them in better shape to make sure roughly 6,500 students everyday get to and from school safely.

"Typically, it adds time to the route," said Rybak. "The more students getting onto the bus adds time. The biggest inconvenience was a lot of times parents get used to the same bus, same bus driver. In this case it's kind of like throwing up all the routes in the air and letting them fall down and figuring out how we can maximize those routes."

Even with the changes, Rybak said the district is still short two drivers.

Leaders with the Minneapolis and St. Paul school districts, both also aggressively hiring over the summer, said they are now fully staffed.

The St. Paul school district also has a partnership with Metro Transit which has helped alleviate the strain on bus drivers.

Rybak said no experience is necessary to become a bus driver. All training is done in-house, and the pace is flexible.

For more information on openings in the Bloomington school district, click here.