CMS works to fill bus driver vacancies as first day of school nears

CHARLOTTE — The return to school brings the familiar sight of school buses on the roads and many of them.

This year, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is expecting thousands more bus riders.

Channel 9′s education reporter Jonathan Lowe learned the district is using the last weeks of summer to get every student a ride for the first day of school on Aug. 26.

“We have well over 100,000 students assigned this year,” said CMS Executive Director of Transportation Adam Johnson.

Johnson says they’ve seen an increase of more than 6,000 students register for transportation compared to this time last year.

“It helped us plan better,” Johnson said. “It really helps us to know where the students are, where the need is, if we need to add buses to the road.”

Currently, the district is trying to fill 35 bus driver vacancies. Johnson says another 47 drivers are on some sort of leave.

“That puts us around 82 vacancies that we’ll be trying to cover on the first day of school,” he said.

Last year, while the district’s first week went relatively smoothly, vacancies did fuel some issues such as hours-long bus rides.

Johnson says parents can help by making sure their child knows their bus number and bus stop location.

“So we get the students to the right location in the afternoon, and that helps speed up the process so those won’t be on the bus so long,” Johnson said.

Transportation officials expect to have 10 more drivers come on board in time for the first day of school.

In addition, they say they have a pipeline of 50 drivers who will be trained and ready for the road by the end of September.

Long or short, it’s going to be a new experience for Mia Phillips’s daughter. The rising senior has not attended a public school since her elementary days.

“She wanted to do this because she wanted to be prepared for college, being around other people,” Phillips said.

Phillips had to prepare differently this year, including shopping for school supplies and new clothes.

“I have to do everything from scratch,” Phillips said.

She also had to sign up her daughter to ride the bus.

“She does want the full experience, so riding the bus will have to be that,” she said.

“I’ve got a good experience from the whole process with registration, so everyone’s been very great and patient with me,” she said.

Families can still register their child to ride the bus online here. It will just be later during the first week that CMS transportation can get it arranged.

The district is also dealing with 20 technician vacancies. They’re encouraging people with diesel mechanic experience to apply.

For more CMS back-to-school information and resources, click here.

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