pittsburgh school bus driver shortage 2017

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#PITTSBURGH SCHOOL BUS DRIVER SHORTAGE 2017 LICENSE#

And Port Authority bus drivers have been told that they may have unfamiliar young riders. The city has also let street cleaners know that kids may be struggling with new routes. Will anyone else be helping kids get to school?įogarty tells Kidsburgh that the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership is sending staff members out to help kids get safely to the schools Downtown.

#PITTSBURGH SCHOOL BUS DRIVER SHORTAGE 2017 HOW TO#

Click here for more details about the job and how to apply. The pay is $15 per hour and Ambassadors work four hours per day. There are more shifts still left to fill, so hiring is still happening. 15.Ĭan I apply for this part-time job, even though school has already started? The plan is to have Navigation Ambassadors out each day through Oct. When will the Ambassadors be helping kids? The hope, Fogarty says, is that kids will feel comfortable knowing “that volunteer in that vest with that sticker is someone you can ask if you have a question.” They wear special vests to let kids know they are Navigation Ambassadors, says James Fogarty, executive director of A+ Schools, one of the organizations that helped create this program. But they’re also serving as friendly, trusted adults who can help kids feel more comfortable and make the first weeks of school as positive as possible. If they keep coming in at the same rate, the district should be staffed up for the year, Haney said.These part-time workers are stationed at intersections around the city to help kids safely walk to school or get on the correct bus. In the weeks since, it has seen an uptick in applications. The district also increased bus-driver pay and offered a program to help people get their commercial licenses. “It was very alarming and very concerning,” he said. Administrators put out the word that office staffers might have to get their commercial driver’s licenses just to get all the kids to and from school. It was down about 30 drivers, so its workforce would have been too small to staff all their routes, said spokesman Jeff Haney. In suburban Salt Lake City, the Canyons School District was in dire straits about a month ago. One Michigan school district was able to find enough drivers by guaranteeing they could work enough hours in the district, including as janitors or in food service, to qualify for health insurance coverage, said Dave Meeuwsen, executive director of the Michigan Association of Pupil Transportation.

His company allows bus drivers whose children are at least 1 year old to ride on the bus with them while they work, saving on daycare costs, Redford said. Field trips and sporting events can add more hours for those who want them, said Redford with First Student. There’s no requirement to work nights, weekends or holidays. Demand for commercial drivers is only increasing with the pandemic-related surge in online shopping, said McFarland with HopSkipDrive.īut working with kids driving a bus can be a rewarding profession, and the hours work well for stay-at-home parents or retirees seeking to supplement their income, contractors say. And people who have them can often find higher-paying work that doesn’t require splitting the day for pickup and drop-off.

#PITTSBURGH SCHOOL BUS DRIVER SHORTAGE 2017 LICENSE#

Driving a school bus requires a commercial driver’s license that can take weeks to obtain. President Joe Biden on Wednesday ordered his education secretary to explore possible legal action against states that have blocked school mask mandates and other health measures meant to protect students against COVID-19.Įconomic forces are also at play in the bus driver shortage. Ron DeSantis, who wants to forbid mask mandates, and districts convinced they’re needed to keep kids safe. In Florida, many of the largest school districts are using managers as drivers and implementing other stop-gap measures to get students to class as the school year begins against a statewide political fight over masks between Republican Gov. Greg Abbott initially prohibited Texas school districts from requiring masks, but successful court challenges led the Texas Education Agency on Thursday to suspend enforcement of his ban while the challenges move through the courts.

Pittsburgh school bus driver shortage 2017