It\u2019s nearly the end of the school year, but districts are already preparing for another year of learning. A key part of that is getting students to the classroom, and that means having enough school bus drivers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are having a definite problem in our industry,” said Addie Colavecchio, the North Syracuse Central School District assistant transportation supervisor.<\/p>\n
Zachary Hill has been driving buses for the North Syracuse Central School District for almost 10 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou’re the first person they see every day as their school day goes. And you’re the last face they see of their school day. So it’s getting to know the kids and the parents and the families. That’s the most rewarding part of it,” Hill said.<\/p>\n
The state Department of Motor Vehicles said school districts across the state are facing a shortage of school bus drivers.<\/p>\n
In 2024, it implemented an exemption of some pre-trip vehicle inspection requirements.<\/p>\n
The \u201cUnder-the-Hood\u201d exemption, the DMV said, is aimed at addressing the school bus driver shortage and is in effect until Nov. 28 of this year.<\/p>\n
Colavecchio said they\u2019re a little short-handed at the district, but right now, there aren\u2019t any worries about getting kids to and from home and school.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn our school district, we shuttle our kids back and forth from school to school for practices for their sports. And sometimes, that’s where it’s going to suffer for a lot of districts,” she said.<\/p>\n
She said the working hours for a school bus driver can be a plus for a lot of people. There are opportunities to climb in the profession as she did, and she highlights the benefits that go beyond a retirement package.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou do become a part of the Teamsters 317, and then you would get all those great benefits, your health insurance and dental and things like that,” said Colavecchio.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, there is a lot of kids and you’re driving around and seems intimidating, but once you get a feel for how to do the job, it’s extremely rewarding. All the relationships you can make with these families and these kids, and it just makes all of the effort worth it,” Hill said.<\/p>\n
While the DMV said there is a statewide shortage, some school districts are in better shape than others. Some of the other districts Spectrum News 1 spoke with said their bus driver staffing numbers are good for next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s nearly the end of the school year, but districts are already preparing for another year of learning.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":842414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,16549,17549,407,339359,405,403,17050,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,5284],"class_list":["post-842413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-app-education","tag-central-ny","tag-education","tag-melissa-krull","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-state","tag-news","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-vod"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116688531656260861","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=842413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}