Bethel Park School District Making Changes To Busing Plans As Students Move To Hybrid Learning Model
BETHEL PARK (KDKA) - Last minute changes for families in the Bethel Park School District. Some buses are now gone and routes had to change.
Today is the district's first hybrid instruction day. And if that didn't have challenges itself, the school had to fix a major bus transportation issue.
"It's a question of how do parents get their kids to school," said Austin Carver.
In a post on social media Sunday night, the district alerted families about a change in transporting some students to school.
They said there was a "number of unexpected departures within the transportation department" late last week. This led the school to consolidate five of the their 58 planned bus routes.
"I feel like it was short notice. Personally we have a lot of kids in our neighborhood and quite a few families weren't able to make it to school today," said Carver.
Austin Carver has three siblings in the district. He believes this change will put more pressure on families to find other ways to get their kids to class.
"They're going to have to somehow to find a way to get other family members. I mean it's not even possible to carpool anymore, that's frowned upon right now," said Carver.
The district tells KDKA, they blame it on the shortage of school bus drivers. It's an issue other districts throughout the region are experiencing as well.
In a statement they say:
"The impacted families were notified of the last-minute changes, which will remain in effect going forward. Bethel Park encourages district families to drive their children to and from school whenever possible."
The district also says they're looking for additional drivers to hire and train.
To see what bus routes have been changed at the district, click here.
