TIRED OUT: More teachers may be driving their students to school

In addition to teaching, some Newton educators may be driving their students to and from school because of a nationwide shortage of bus drivers.

Superintendent Tom Messinger said at the Aug. 23 school board meeting that the district already has another teacher potentially getting licensed to be a substitute driver. However, he acknowledged teachers doubling as bus drivers may not be the most suitable answer or long-term solution to the district’s problem.

“It’s not a great full-time solution because when a teacher drives the bus it puts them at school a little bit late, and it also means they have to leave school a little bit early,” Messinger said. “So it’s a great backup for a substitute spot but not a great permanent solution.”

Other districts across the state are experiencing similar issues, he added. Even Newton administrators — like activities director Ryan Rump and transportation supervisor David Kretz — have served as substitute drivers on occasion, along with a number of bus barn mechanics.

“The problem with all of those individuals is that if you put them on a route all the time that does eat into some of their other responsibilities they have,” Messinger said. “So it’s not a good plan to constantly have them taken out of the mix of what they’re doing on a regular basis for the purpose of full-time route driver.”

When giving faculty a route, Kretz said his department keeps teachers’ and administrators’ schedules in mind. For instance, he wouldn’t be able to put a teacher on a route if it was going to interfere with class instruction.

Kretz is thankful Newton faculty have volunteered to get their commercial driver’s licenses to help transport kids to school. Shortages in drivers, he said, are affecting school districts all across the country. Some Iowa bus drivers are taking on two rounds and telling parents to expect drop-off times to be affected.

Prior to Kretz joining the Newton Community School District in February 2021, the transportation department was experiencing its fair share of struggles. After Iowa was declared a pandemic, Newton lost about a dozen of its bus drivers; some of which were considered high-risk and didn’t want to chance it.

“That automatically put us into a situation where our staff was depleted by a third, right off the top,” Kretz said. “When you lose that many drivers, now you have to rethink how you’re doing everything. Routes are condensed. And when you condense routes, times go up because you have to pick up more kids.”

Extending school walk zones helped district, but puts burden on families

At the time of the pandemic, the school district extended its walk zones to a three-mile radius for the high school and a two-mile radius for the middle school and elementary schools. Children within those state-standard walk zones must walk to school or seek other means of transportation besides a bus.

Messinger said the public’s perception is the walk zone was extended due to COVID, which he suggested is not entirely true.

“I don’t believe that was the original intent behind,(or) the only intention behind, the switch,” he said. “But it also helped save us somewhat during COVID because we lost a bunch of drivers during that time period. Even if we wanted to go back to transporting everybody now, we don’t have the drivers.”

It is a long distance for younger kids to walk, Messinger added. He realizes it causes a burden on a number of families, but school districts across the state are limited on how long buses can be on the road with students.

Kretz said, “High schoolers can be on the bus no longer than 75 minutes. The younger kids — everybody up to high school — is supposed to be at an hour. We’re pushing the limits on several of them. Some we’ve had to make some adjustments to meet those needs.”

Last winter, the district was sometimes so short on drivers it had to announce students on specific buses would be late to class. Messinger said the reason for that was schools had to wait for a bus to get in, drop kids off and then send that driver back on a second route to pick up more kids.

Even though the school district lost a chunk of its bus drivers, it was still tasked with getting kids to schools. But, in turn, the responsibilities of drivers increase because they have to pick up more kids. There are also children living in rural areas of Newton and surrounding towns like Kellogg that need picked up, too.

Kretz said, “They’re spread out so those drive times are longer.”

Reaching rural areas, having drivers for activities can be a challenge

Currently, Kretz said the school district has 16 contracted, yellow bus drivers. It also has three Suburban drivers, which transport preschool children and kids with special needs. Ideally, Kretz wants to see two more route drivers to help alleviate some of the times and get more rural routes covered.

“Some of these where they live out in the country it’s not like they’re on a main thoroughfare where you stop and you pick ‘em up and you keep going,” Kretz said. “It’s time consuming. When you have the amount of kids that live out in the country like we do, the times grow longer.”

Substitute drivers are extremely helpful at the moment.

“Especially for activities, because that’s another challenge right now — we have a lot of activities,” Kretz said. “For example: Next Tuesday I’ve got five activities that require yellow buses. And when you got five activities that require yellow buses, those drivers have to come from somewhere.”

Getting kids home is the transportation department’s first priority, but a heavy load of activities can be just as demanding. If Kretz has substitutes that can fill in for the route drivers’ shifts, then the route drivers can pick up activities. Typically, route drivers are rotated for activities.

“I do have two drivers who just do activities, but this time of the year is busy with football, cross country, swimming, volleyball — and some of those even require two buses, like varsity football,” Kretz said. “It’s challenging. Thus far we’ve been able to meet those needs.”

Newton continues its search to recruit new bus drivers, even going so far as to offer referral incentives to district employees. Kretz suggested one of the difficulties in finding candidates is the job itself. This is not a job people seek out, he said, and driving kids on a school bus can be stressful at times.

“It’s a lot of responsibility and it’s not like you can apply, get your license and off you go. There’s a lot of study time that goes into it,” Kretz said.

So what’s the solution? Kretz isn’t sure, especially considering a shortage of bus drivers was likely on the horizon with fewer Maytag retirees applying. The staff is aging, too. Kretz said the current school bus drivers will only work for so long. It’s a niche job whose candidate pool is oddly narrowed.

“These are your options: Finding somebody that doesn’t work during the day and is willing to make some extra money, finding somebody that’s a stay-at-homer or finding somebody who is retired,” Kretz said. “And then couple that in with the pandemic and everything else going on. It’s challenging.”

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com