Financial concerns and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic have left the North Haven Public School District (NHPS) with a shortage of bus drivers and monitors for its students.

Nationwide, many school districts are experiencing a bus driver shortage, and many educational institutions closed their doors to in-person learning as a result of COVID-19. As schools began to reopen, many drivers declined to return to their jobs, according to John Hipsher, chief operating officer of M&J Bus Inc.

“[For] school bus drivers, the demographic[s] include a lot of retired or semi-retired individuals that use it as a second career,” said Hipsher, whose company of operation supplies school bus transportation for 23 school districts in Connecticut, including North Haven. “I think you have some drivers that have decided that the potential exposure to the virus was something that was risky for them.”

Many drivers were also reluctant to adhere to COVID-19 vaccination mandates established by organizations such as M&J, which Hipster said was an industry-wide problem, not specific to those transporting students attending North Haven schools.

Another hurdle bus companies have been facing is the length of time it takes for drivers to receive a license to drive a school bus. According to Hipsher, the lengthy time frame is not a financially satisfactory route for potential school bus drivers themselves, who have left a previous job to then have to go through a tentative background check process on both state and federal levels. The undetermined length of the process can be dependent on the level of commitment by the trainee, who is often looking to start their career and earn their salary as soon as possible.

“It’s a wonderful, rewarding career, but it’s hard to jump from one [career] to the other and start earning income right away,” Hipsher said. “It takes a certain individual to be comfortable to get behind the wheel of a 40-foot-long vehicle that’s got some loud kids in the back of it and drive these kids to school and home every day.”

On the local level, the shortage and its financial compilations, have been specific to NHPS for about a year, according to Superintendent of Schools Patrick Stirk, who said M&J has done what it could to provide bonuses along with raises to retain their drivers. To assuage financial concerns, Hipsher said M&J fosters a training program used by other districts for current bus and van monitors on its payroll to become more speedily licensed and become drivers. M&J has also increased wages over the past few years to maintain its drivers and remain competitive with other districts

“That’s something that has worked in many, many districts, and we’re developing and encouraging that in North Haven as well," Hipsher said.

Hipsher said as many as five drivers would be an adequate addition to the current M&J driving roster to “fill some open roots” and to account for any absences due to illness or personal emergencies. Hipsher applied the same number of needed personnel for the role of a van monitor as well.

According to Stirk, the lack of a sufficient number of bus drivers has also caused scheduling issues, which have affected transportation to and from athletic events. Hipsher added that the current winter sports season has further illustrated the need for more drivers.

For typical school transportation, Stirk said that pick-up and drop-off times for students at their designated stops have also been off their usual estimated times, with students from both North Haven Middle School and High School boarding the same buses, adding more stops along the way.

“Our middle school and high school students are dismissed and ride the same routes home, so we’ve had to double up routes there as well,” said Stirk.

The district also needs more monitors on vans, which are “very important to the district because they provide really almost individualized support and attention to some of our students that ride in the vans,” according to Stirk.

Those vans are also owned by M&J, and their riders are mostly students who are part of the district’s special needs program or attend other schools to support their neurodiversity. Ensuring a safe and comfortable ride to their place of study is a beneficial step in that process, and new monitors can help achieve that.

“They’re making sure they are buckling in correctly, they’re safe on the ride home, as well as having conversations and building relationships with these students back and forth from school,” Stirk said. “They provide a great service to us. Anytime, you’re working with students [who are] really young, some are babies, kindergarteners, first graders, you need to be able to have that ability to build relationships.”