Teachers stepping up to help fill bus driver shortage in Butler School District

BUTLER, Pa. — According to the Pennsylvania State Education Association, every single district in the state is looking for teachers right now. 

With kids heading back to school soon, bus drivers are still in high demand, and teachers in Butler are encouraging others to be part of the solution.

“I think part of the reason why we did this was part of our coaching background and that ‘next man up’ kind of thing,” said health and physical education teacher, Scott Stoner. “Well, if there’s no one else. We’ll grab the wheel, and we’ll go. And that’s kind of what we need other people to do.”

Scott Stoner and Bill Elliott teach health and physical education in the Butler Area School District. They also coach. And most recently, they grabbed the wheel and added bus driver to their titles.

“There’s no joke driving 50-60 kids in a bus,” said health and physical education teacher, Bill Elliott. “It’s a big responsibility.”

“Last year, at our coaches meeting in the fall ... I’m the assistant to the athletic director. He basically told all the coaches that we’re going to struggle to get kids to athletic events. This is a real problem and as much as you may have heard about it, it became a reality as we headed back to school. There may not be times when we could get our teams to the events,” explained Stoner.

There are about 70 athletic teams spread over 150 square miles in the Butler Area School District.

“I remember last year at one point, or might have been the year before, some kids (were) dismissed early so the drivers could come back and take the rest of the kids on their rides,” said Stoner.

Stoner got his commercial driver’s license this year and will get out on the roads for the first time this school year. Elliott got his CDL last year and drove kids to school in the morning. Then after teaching all day, he drove his football players to games.

“The kids got a pretty big kick out of it,” said Elliott.  “Some of my colleagues had a little fun with it too. But nonetheless it was a job, and I took it seriously.”

Even more serious than the bus driver shortage is the teacher shortage. It’s being labeled a crisis.

In the last decade, there’s been a 66% drop in the number of new teacher certificates in the state. According to the acting secretary of education in Pennsylvania, Eric Hagarty, 10 years ago, roughly 20,000 new teachers were entering classrooms each year. Last year, there were only around 6,000. Retirements have also increased by about 50% over the last couple of years.

At Slippery Rock University’s College of Education, Dean Keith Dils says he’s constantly getting calls from districts.

“Weekly, I get calls,” said Slippery Rock University College of Education’s Dean Keith Dils. “I have Zoom meetings set up with schools asking what can we do? We need to get your graduates. We have a situation here where we’re concerned. And we’re working with them.”

Across the country, colleges saw a 70% drop in students picking education as their major. Not at Slippery Rock. In fact, the university’s education department is experiencing an 11-year high in applicants.

“The pipeline is there,” said Dils. “It’s a matter of jumping into the corporate world and making more money and having working conditions that are easier on the stress and anxiety. So we need to support our teachers.”

Pennsylvania State Education Association’s Region Advocacy Coordinator Fritz Fekete says another step to take is to bump the minimum salary for teachers to $45,000. Currently, it’s at $18,500. That minimum salary was set back in 1989.

“We have to make the profession attractive again for people,” said Pennsylvania State Education Association’s Region Advocacy Coordinator Fritz Fekete. “Can’t continue to attack educators for doing their job, and they need to be compensated for doing that job.”

Fekete also wants to see the focus put back on the passion of teaching. So does Dils.

“If you ask folks to do too much, they start to look at their options,” said Dils.

Dils believes we’re getting a handle on the teacher shortage, which really started about a decade ago.

“I like what I hear from the governor’s office,” said Dils. “The idea of pulling back on an exam that was used about eight or nine years ago.  We were told we were producing too many teachers back then. And so a policy came down the pike that used an exam in a way that was artificial. Didn’t serve its purpose. Was screening out the wrong people. And so the shortage started to happen then. And so the latest policies have removed those that those exams for three years. And I think that’s a good policy. So do we have a handle on it yet? We see there’s a shortage are we attempting to do across the commonwealth and things that need to be done? I think so. At Slippery Rock, I know we’re doing specific things that are having an impact, and I’m happy to see that.”

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Dils says they implemented several partnership programs with local school districts, such as Pittsburgh Public, Aliquippa and New Castle. Another of those programs allows members of the military and other individuals to transition from their current career into teaching.

“We say we’d like to create a pipeline from Pittsburgh to Slippery Rock,” said Dils. “And so we do that. We bring students here for the summer for a program and our faculty works with them to develop their teaching skills so that they get confidence and say, ‘I thought I wanted to become a teacher but now I really want to.’”

As many schools look for solutions outside their districts, in Butler they’re fortunate to have their own teachers stepping up to do even more for the kids.

“If you’re asking me for the solution, we need to encourage other people to do it and say this is a real need. And like Bill said, once you get your CDL and they pay for training, you can drive. And as I get closer to retirement that may be my next venture,” said Stoner.

A third health and physical education teacher just completed the training and got his CDL. At least three other teachers have shown interest.

The first day of school for Butler students is Sept. 6.

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