Bus Drivers Still in Short Supply as Lewis County Schools Make Full-Time Return

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With students and teachers ready to go back to school full-time and in-person in the coming days, public schools in Lewis County continue to face bus driver shortages inflamed by the nationwide labor shortage and the COVID-19 pandemic. 

But some schools are feeling it harder than others. 

At the Chehalis School District, school schedules had to be reworked over the summer to implement a two-tiered bus route system. It’s a similar process Centralia implemented the year prior, though they’re implementing the multi-tier system, which divides pickup times on routes by grade level, on a permanent basis. 

Because of this, bell schedules have switched around a little. W.F. West students will start their day at 7:40 a.m. and end at 2:10 p.m., Chehalis Middle School students will start at 7:50 a.m. and end at 2:20 p.m., and the elementaries will start a full hour later at 8:50 a.m. and end at 3:20 p.m. 

“We still have to get to every geographic area in the district. We’re just doing it differently with fewer drivers,” explained Heather Pinkerton, director of business and operations at the Chehalis School District. 

The district is currently working to distribute new bus routes to families and parents. Chehalis normally runs 22 routes, Pinkerton said, and they’ve had to rework routes due to the new tier system. 

The district plans to work with the transportation department and other district staff to figure out a potential timeline to be able to switch back to the previous single-tiered transportation bell schedule. The feasibility of that will be looked at during winter break.  

“This is not just a Chehalis issue. This is a county issue, this is a state issue and a national issue as well,” Chehalis Superintendent Christine Moloney said last week at a board meeting. “Bus driving is a unique job, it’s a precious job. It is a super important job. For us, it’s the first face that students see in the morning.” 

During a normal year, Chehalis would have around 22 bus drivers. Today, they’re down to 14 drivers. 

The district had to get creative in order to win over new bus drivers. Over the last few months, the district has worked in conjunction with the Centralia-Chehalis Pupil Transportation Cooperative to cover costs associated with their commercial drivers license training. Since bus driving is a part-time job, they also created hybrid driver-custodian positions in order to attract more workers looking for full-time work. 

Pinkerton said she expects the district’s transportation department to spend an extra $400,000 to implement the two-tiered bus routes since they’ll be doubling their drive times, distance and bus wear-and-tear. Some of that cost will be absorbed by the state, she said. 

Don Hall, the transportation supervisor at Toledo School District, said they plan on hosting a recruitment fair for bus drivers from 9 to 11 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 28, at the ToledoTel parking lot to offer information to prospective workers. 



He said they’ll even have a bus on standby for anyone who wants to get on board and give it a spin. 

Toledo is looking to bring on three bus drivers to their current staff of eight, Hall said. These will be on-call substitute positions with a chance for regular work. One of Hall’s drivers is expecting a baby in just a couple months, so the district could be hurting for some extra backup. 

“Comparatively, we’re a small district. We can say, yeah, we only need three, but when you compare it on a per capita (basis), we’re hurting,” Hall said, pointing out the significant growth in the area. 

About three weeks ago, Hall said he went to a bus driver hiring fair at North Thurston Public Schools. They didn’t get one lead. 

Add on Gov. Jay Inslee’s vaccine mandate for all public school staff, volunteers and teachers, and Hall said he feels less optimistic they’ll be able to hire any additional workers. 

“I have a couple drivers here who, because of the mandate, may not return,” Hall said. “We’re already short drivers, this is going to make it worse. This is going to make it much worse.” 

Gibb Kingsley, director of transportation at the Centralia-Chehalis Pupil Transportation Cooperative, said in any given year about 20% of bus drivers will leave from the two school districts. Since the onset of COVID-19, though, that number has risen to nearly half. 

“The pandemic has definitely escalated driver shortages, but the shortage of drivers has existed for a while,” Kingsley said. 

The job, he said, is “great for those retirees that are getting income from supplemental sources,” though perhaps not for people looking for a full time gig. But that doesn’t diminish the importance. 

Centralia, too, is offering free CDL training coverage through the cooperative. 

For more information on if a particular school district is hiring bus drivers, reach out to their district office or transportation department.