As unlikely as it may seem, summer break is almost over, and in a matter of weeks children will once again line up on street corners all over the suburbs to board big yellow school buses and return to class. But the question facing many schools districts and bus service companies is: Who will drive them?
The number of applicants for open bus driver positions is down across the board in recent years, according to local school district and bus company officials.
“We’re all shaking our heads, going, what is going on?” said Diane Walters, the human resource manager at Barrington Transportation, the company that provides bus services for Barrington Area Unit School District 220. “I’m not sure if we’ll get back to normal or what, because if this is the new normal that’s bad.”
The suspected culprit behind the shrinking applicant pool is the COVID-19 pandemic. Many suburban bus drivers are retirees, and the prevailing belief is that older people are avoiding bus driver jobs to avoid exposure to the virus, which has proved to be more fatal the older you are.
“The whole industry is watching this, going, is this going to be the change in the people who have historically been school drivers?” Walters said. “Did COVID ring that bell for us?”
To try to lure applicants, employers of bus drivers are offering increased wages or perks like signing bonuses and free job training.
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