The Hopewell Area School District is moving to a flexible instruction day on Thursday because of a bus driver shortage, the district posted to its website.
The flexible instruction day will be for all students.
Hopewell Superintendent Dr. Jeff Beltz sent Channel 11 the following statement:
“The Hopewell Area School District has been actively managing a bus driver shortage for some time. Despite our best efforts to maintain transportation services, the situation remains a daily and delicate balance. Unfortunately, early this morning, it was determined that we could not effectively transport students due to an insufficient number of available drivers.
“While we have worked diligently to minimize disruptions throughout the year, today we reached a point beyond what we could absorb, making transportation unfeasible. We do understand the challenges that this presents to our families as we move students to remote learning, and we appreciate their patience and understanding as we continue to seek solutions to this ongoing issue.
“We thank our community for their continued support and cooperation.”
Beltz told Channel 11 the decision was made shortly after 5 a.m. Thursday after unexpected call-offs made operations impossible. He said this has been a balancing act for the district for several years, which has tried to minimize disruptions to prevent this from happening.
“I worked with the Director of Transportation, we were just trying to troubleshoot some ideas and concepts and try to think outside the box, even, could we put one school on delay while we move the others?” Beltz said.
Ultimately, Beltz said, executing those double runs couldn’t be done. He said Hopewell has been actively trying to hire school bus drivers for months, even offering free cdl training and sending a letter to families last month asking if they knew anyone who was interested in applying.
“Unfortunately, it may take us into the summer where we’ll have some heavy recruiting efforts and may be able to expand our training as well, our training offerings,” Beltz said.
Hopewell Schools’ website lists the starting pay for drivers at $22.30/hour, van drivers at $19.82/hour, and bus monitors at $18.32/hour. Right now, some drivers are being trained, but that training takes time. Beltz is asking families to be patient as they work to fill these positions.
“The district certainly understands the problems this causes at home,” Beltz said.
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