By Eric W. Schoen
School is back in session. Fortunately, most students are learning in classrooms and not remotely. There is nothing like students being live in class receiving instruction from a teacher who cares about them. Unfortunately, across the country there is a shortage of school bus drivers. Sadly, this shortage was to be expected.
After you read this article I want you to think seriously if you would want to be a school bus driver. Particularly with Covid still very much a presence. Many school bus drivers are retirees who enjoy the interaction with students. Do you really think these retirees, many in their late 60’s, 70’s and older want to be driving students and interacting with parents in the midst of a pandemic?
For most school bus drivers driving a school bus is a part time job. The pay is not great, the hours force you to wake up early, have a long break midday and come back to take students home dropping off your bus just in time for dinner. If you drive a bus on country roads it’s not that bad and you don’t hit traffic.
But in a city like Yonkers with all of the hills where cars are allowed to park on both sides of the street particularly in hilly areas where there is little room to maneuver, driving a small 15 passenger bus let alone a 45 passenger bus is no easy task. Dealing with cars that are double parked or parked illegally makes the job of a bus driver that much more difficult, and need I tell you that in our fast paced environment interactions with those parked where they shouldn’t be is no fun.
Let’s for a minute step back and see how the child gets assigned to a school bus. He or she must be enrolled in school. For some strange reason, parents who have moved, who have kids turning school age or decided to take their children out of private schools think about enrolling their kids in Public Schools on Labor Day and the week before it. This is just not a Yonkers thing. It happens in New York City, most big cities in America and many smaller districts.
Late registration keeps bus assignment staff and computers working to the last minute days if not hours before school begins. A parent who had registered their child for PreK the week before school begins called to complain to a friend of mine that the district didn’t have a PreK seat for the child. I was far from surprised. Many PreK seats are in private schools, and just like it’s hard to find a teacher in the public schools at the last minute private schools cannot plan for PreK and find a classroom and staff the day before school begins. Registration in most districts starts in November or December, sometimes earlier. So unless a last minute family move occurs there is plenty of time to get your child registered for school without waiting until the last minute.
Yonkers has a system of choice. Parents can select the schools they want their child to go to. This came about due to the Integration of schools. Basically for those that don’t know, when I attended Yonkers Public Schools in the 60’s and 70’s living on the West side of town there were fewer opportunities for my peers than students who lived on the east side of town. Years and millions of dollars later Yonkers was forced to adopt an Integration plan to provide the same opportunities to students on the west side of town that those east of the Hudson River Received.
Families with school age children in the 60’s and 70’s were moving from south west Yonkers to north East Yonkers. So the Board of Education closed numerous south side schools and turned them into housing or community centers. So when the school aged population shifted back to the West side of town, there were not enough seats to accommodate all the children. That’s why until Yonkers builds more schools on the West side of town you will always having busing in our fair city. This costs a lot of money and inconveniences a lot of people. Basically don’t drive in Yonkers between 2:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m.
Getting back to school bus drivers, last year with kids learning there were not many kids on school buses. Now with most students back, big buses are filled with 40-45 students. Many do not have monitors, not for a lack of budgeted positions but because the monitors often in their 60’s and 70’s and many younger don’t want to be in a school bus in the middle of a pandemic. Lack of a monitor makes the driver the only adult on the bus.
The driver has to keep track of students coming in and leaving the bus. Younger students require someone to meet them at the bus for drop off. With Covid students should have assigned seats, be masked at all times facing forward, and not be getting up and down to greet their friends. If you as a child rode a school bus did you sit like a lamb and not misbehave? I doubt it. So its not easy, particularly with no monitors for the school bus drivers to keep all the students on good behavior following Covid rules.
Parents are told where they and their children should meet the school bus. Drivers try their best to be on time. If it’s raining that’s not an excuse to stay in the house or under covered shelter until the bus comes. We have umbrellas. Raincoats. When kids are being picked up and dropped off they and their parents need to be on the correct side of the street. How many times have I seen parents running out of their homes across the street from the bus stop to bring their children to the bus or pick them up. These precious minutes delay the bus from making scheduled stops upsetting other parents and students along the route.
Children should be at bus stops in the morning 10 minutes before the bus is due. Late kids delay things for everyone. Parents should have a buddy system with another parent so they can tell the driver if little Joey is not going to be riding the bus that day due to illness or other reason. Those minutes while a bus driver out of the goodness of his/her heart waits for a child to show up delays the bus for everyone. Make sure your child knows what bus he or she should be on and if need be put a string around the child’s neck with his/her name and bus written on a piece of paper. With the pandemic craziness there is more need to do this now than ever.
As a parent you want the bus driver to focus on the road and on the safety of your child. Simply nothing is more important. Bringing the driver a bottle of water on a hot day or a cup of hot coffee on a cold day with a piece of the fresh Bundt cake you made is always a nice gesture.
Bus companies are short on mechanics specially trained to repair vehicles that often get extra mileage as drivers are called upon to do extra routes. Schools are short on staff to answer calls from parents, so if the bus is running 5 minutes late chill and let those with true emergencies get through. Usually after a few weeks things start to run smoothly. If they by chance don’t say something to the bus driver, monitor, School Administrator and/or Transportation Department.
`With the pandemic we are going through everyone needs to take it easy and a few weeks after school begins the kinks will be worked out. This is by far not the first year a school bus is late. By the way, be on time to pick your kids up from the bus stop. Nothing worse or scarier from the child’s point of view to be taken to an unfamiliar place at Central Office to wait for a parent or guardian to be picked up. And please, don’t tell the person who calls you to tell you the child is at Central Office to send your kid home in a bus or cab. Parents who brought the kids into the world need to take some responsibility for their well being!
Bus transportation in a city like Yonkers is a privilege. When I went to Elementary school through Junior High through High School you either walked, took a public bus or if fortunate had a parent that took you maybe one way.
It isn’t easy being a School Bus Driver. Want the job? If you meet the qualifications there are plenty of openings!
Reach Eric Schoen at thistooisyonkers@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @ericyonkers. Listen to Eric Schoen and Dan Murphy on the Westchester Rising Radio Show Thursday’s from 10-11 a.m. On WVOX 1460 AM, go to WVOX.com and click the arrow to listen to the live stream or download the WVOX app from the App Store free of charge.
