As of Thursday, four School District 57 school bus routes remained partially cancelled, district assistant superintendent Lee Karpenko said in an email.
The district’s new school bus contractor, First Student, was forced to combine routes as a result of a sudden reduction in available bus drivers, the district said in an email to parents last week.
“At this time we don't know how many routes are combined as they were based on last year's bus routes,” Karpenko said. “We have found that we might be able to find efficiencies as we look at getting more students to school each day. First Student has 4 partially cancelled runs at this time which affects about 250 students out of the 3250 that ride the bus each day.”
First Student is hiring additional bus drivers to meet the demand and will them driving as soon as they pass the company’s safety testing and standards, he added.
“First Student will continue to add runs each week as more drivers become available,” Karpenko said. “Our first goal is to have all of our students riding on buses to school, as we get more drivers available we will be looking at the longer runs to see how we can get the right balance for students riding the bus each day. “
In an email to parents last week, the district said that a driver shortage is being felt across the country and asked parents and students to be patient while the district works with First Student to address the issue.
“As additional new drivers are available First Student and the District will be working to adjust the length of combined routes to reduce some current ride times for students,” the email said. “In light of these anticipated changes, moving forward all route changes will be communicated from First Student to families via email and routes will continue to be shared on school websites.”
Updated route information is available on School District 57’s website.
