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After Cape Coral Councilmember Jennifer Nelson's daughter did not get dropped off at the bus stop until 7:42 p.m., she decided to write School District of Lee County Superintendent Dr. Ken Savage and board members an email sharing her concerns and offering possible solutions.
Nelson's daughter, who is 16, attends PACE Center for Girls, and takes the bus to school, as well as back home. School lets out at 3:30 p.m. and the girls get on a bus and travel to the Alternative Learning Center before the route continues home.
On Monday, Nelson received a phone call from her daughter just before 5 p.m. saying they literally just crossed the Midpoint Bridge and had to turn around and go back to ALC in Fort Myers. That phone call came because her daughter's shift at Bubba's started at 5 p.m. and she knew she was not going to make it on time.
Nelson called her daughter's boss and shared the news, expecting to drop her off by 6 p.m. for her shift.
Sarah Johnson's daughter, who rides the same bus, arrived home at 7:30 p.m. On a good day, she arrives home at 5:15 p.m. after leaving school at 3:30 p.m.
"Their regular bus driver has been out for three weeks. The entire time my daughter has not been picked up, or dropped off on time," Johnson said. "When that happened last night, there was an eighth grader whose bus stop got skipped and she ended up just getting off the bus with my daughter. I drove her home and that was at 7:30 last night."
Nelson said her daughter tried asking the bus driver to drop off the kids in the southwest Cape before those in the northwest Cape, but the driver did not appear to speak English and so she told her boss she might not make her shift at all.
Nelson tried calling the district's transportation number, but there was no answer.
"I'm grateful that my child has a cell phone and can communicate where she is," she said, adding that another text came in saying they were just getting into northwest Cape Coral to drop off kids after 7 p.m.
Johnson, too, is grateful her daughter has a cell phone, so she can keep her posted of where she is, as she said when she calls the district's transportation number she is put on hold and never put through to someone.
"I am just not going to let her ride the bus until they get it figured out," she said. "I cannot not know where my kid is for three hours."
This is not the first time either mother has had bus issues. When Nelson's daughter went back to school midweek after missing almost two weeks of school because of COVID, the bus never came, so Nelson took her to school.
"I am fortunate. I have friends who will pitch in and help," Nelson said of coordinating with others to either pick up or drop off her daughter.
Johnson's daughter has also had issues in the morning with her bus. Her daughter leaves for the bus at 8 a.m., for a 8:10 pick up time. Johnson said her daughter came back after waiting for 45 minutes saying, 'Sorry, mom, the bus didn't come.'"
One morning after getting on the bus, Johnson said her daughter did not arrive at school until almost noon, missing her first three classes of the day. This happened because they are dropped off at a different school and a bus then takes them to PACE, Johnson said.
Although her bus stop is not too far from home, Johnson does not like her daughter standing outside alone for an hour in the morning. She said there has to be a better way.
"I work from home and I have a relatively flexible schedule. Can I get her there in a pinch? Yeah, but it's not ideal," she said. "I'm lucky I have that option. I feel awful for parents that really rely on the transportation."
For other parents, Nelson said that may not be the case, as they leave for work expecting their child to be picked up and brought to school. When the bus never comes, the child then goes back home and loses a day of school, Nelson said.
Johnson said she and Nelson are coordinating a schedule to get the girls to and from school.
Nelson's experience was shared on Facebook and she received a call from two school board members, who also shared that it is a problem across the district.
Nelson said she knows there is an issue with drivers as the city of Cape Coral, too, is having an issue with driver shortages faced by their waste vendor.
There is a difference here, however, she added.
"The waste vendor is a lot different than picking up children," she said.
She wrote a letter to Savage offering a possible solution, as she does not want to just complain about the issue. Her possible solution is the consideration of emergency pay, or hazard pay because of the pandemic, which would elevate the salary and give the district time to train while negotiating a pay increase for labor workers.
Bus drivers make an average wage of $16, with Nelson asking how to the district could get them up to $19, or $20 an hour.
"These bus drivers' scope and responsibility is a lot bigger. They are carrying precious cargo," Nelson said. "It's not the bus drivers' fault. It is what this pandemic has created in terms of labor shortages for certain types of positions."
The response she said she received was the union is leveraging the bus driver crisis.
"I don't know what the solution is, but I want to give solutions. We rely on buses to get to and from school because of my work schedule. I am not going to sit there and complain without trying to come up or offer a suggestion, or temporary solution, if you will. The people who are suffering are kids. They are not getting educated and that is the problem. Think about all the kids left at bus stops. They are not learning. That is a concern," Nelson said.
District working to address the issue
District spokesperson Rob Spicker said the district currently has 90 openings for drivers. He said since the return to school on Jan. 4 amidst a COVID surge, the district has seen an average of 125 drivers out sick.
"That means we have started each day with at least 200 routes without a driver," he said.
With the shortage, and drivers out sick, bus routes are combined every day.
"Since we start the day with 200 routes, or more uncovered, then we have to combine those routes with others, or assign a driver to run them whole after completing their regular route," Spicker said. "Our transportation department works tirelessly to get a bus to every stop as soon as is possible under the current circumstance."
The average bus ride for students is 50 minutes and, at full staffing, buses are scheduled to run two routes in the morning and two in the afternoon. He said many drivers have been running three, or four to make up for the shortage.
"Once they fall behind, they are late for every stop, often getting exponentially later. For instance, if a high school bus going home in the afternoon picks up extra students to get them home because their bus doesn't have a driver, those extra students will get to their stop late," Spicker said. "The bus now heads to a 3:10 elementary school dismissal, but is late because of the extra stops. The elementary students are all now late. Due to the shortage, the driver could now be assigned to pick up a middle school route, but gets to the school an hour or more after classes dismissed, so all those students are even later than the ones before them."
The district understands the frustration and appreciates the parents' patience for buses not showing up at a bus stop in the morning.
"We let them know that we will get a bus to their child"s stop, it just might be extremely late," Spicker said. "Contract negotiations are under way to increase driver pay and potentially offer other incentives to make the job more attractive. We continue to offer benefits that eliminate any upfront costs to become a driver and are constantly looking to hire more. Anyone interested in becoming a bus driver can apply directly through our website, https://www.leeschools.net/careers/bus_drivers.”