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AUSTINTOWN -- Some students in the Austintown Local School District will be taking new buses or routes to school when classes resume after the new year.
Superintendent Tim Kelty said the changes are a necessary response to a statewide and national shortage of bus drivers and are the best way to avoid more drastic measures.
"The start of the year is always hectic, and we really were behind the eight ball from the beginning," Kelty said. "We did a full evaluation of transportation in mid-September, and we found out that we certainly need more drivers, but also that we could tighten up the routes a bit better."
Kelty said the district needs 42 to 45 drivers to provide proper transportation for the 1,900 to 2,000 students who ride buses. However, Austintown currently has 32 drivers. The shortfall includes two who will retire in January and another two on sick leave. He said the lack of drivers has caused delays that have left students and parents frustrated.
In response, Kelty said about 20% of the district's bus routes were either cut or altered to make transportation run more efficiently.
"We just went in and cleaned up," he said. "Austintown has a lot of square miles and we have a lot of buses making long trips. So, we condensed the ones closer to the school and cut out overlapping routes. I can't tell you what an enormous undertaking it was. We took it down to the very last street and the very last kid. There was nothing we didn't look at."
Kelty said in some cases it was a matter of moving just two students to a different bus or using an alternate route that gave drivers even 30 more seconds to work with.
"We decided we could fix this over Christmas break. I'm an Austintown kid, and I don't want to see my community suffer so I made this change now," Kelty said. "That's what Austintown is all about. We're always trying to be more efficient, more consistent. In Austintown, we get better, and that's just all there is to it."
The changes will be in effect when students return to school Jan. 4. Kelty said parents can see the changes on the district's website now. As soon as they go to www.austintownschools.org, a pop-up will direct them to the notice about transportation changes. The website's parent portal will let them enter a student's name and provide the student's bus number, stop location and pickup time.
Kelty said he understands some parents may have initial concerns about the changes but that they are preferable to some of the suggestions made after the district completed its transportation audit.
Kelty said the major suggestions included changing school times, using county transit buses, extending the walking zone and even canceling high school busing.
Kelty said he had no intention of imposing the chaos that altered school times might cause for everyone, nor was he inclined to extend the walking zone from 1 mile to 2, which he said would suddenly force 700 students to walk to school in the middle of winter.
The state of Ohio does not require high school busing, but Kelty said he would not make that change during the school year either. He said he does not intend to consider it unless the driver shortage gets worse.
"If we continue to lose drivers, it may force my hand, but I won't do that until the summer," he said. "Those are all extreme solutions that I wouldn't want to do in the middle of the school year."
Kelty said using county transit also is out of the question for now. In addition to losing the connection the district's bus drivers have with the community, he said it would cost the district considerably more than what it pays for transportation now.
Kelty and Treasurer Blaise Karlovic said the cost per transit bus would be anywhere from $30 to $35 per hour, while the district pays bus drivers $20 to $26 per hour.
Kelty said he understands why there is a shortage of bus drivers.
"It's the nature of the job," he said. "It's an enormous responsibility to drive this huge bus with the most precious cargo on board, and then you have all the regulations to contend with."
He said he knows that pay and benefits are also a concern and that the district has taken steps to keep and attract drivers.
To "stop the bleeding," Kelty said Austintown has increased drivers' salaries overall and also offered the opportunity to make more through "trip tickets" by driving for athletic events and field trips. He added he knows the district cannot do too much all at once.
"We instituted some MOUs to give drivers an incentive to stay," he said. "I think they understand that the district cares, and I'm going to do whatever I can to make it the best it can be, but also be a good steward of finances. I want to take care of those drivers."
The superintendent also is looking toward the future. He hopes once the changes have been in place and the district sees success, he plans to host a hiring event.
He said once those changes have been in place and the district has seen success with them, he hopes to host a hiring event.
"We know, generally, what some of the applicants are looking for, and we plan to move forward with that," he said.