Douglas County starts school year with rolling bus cancellations
UPDATE: Tuesday night, the Douglas County School Board voted unanimously to add a mill levy override and bond to the November ballot in an effort to pay bus drivers more.
On the first day of school in Douglas County, some kids won't have bus service. This week, 13 routes spread across the district are on a planned cancellation. Next week, it will be other students' turn. The cancellations are frustrating parents as they adjust to the new normal for Douglas County schools.
Rolling bus cancellations are en route to Douglas County families.
"I just can't imagine growing up and going to a public school and not knowing how I was getting to school," said Parker mom of three Maia Casadei.
It's not the first time the district has had to cancel bus routes.
"Last year it was cancelled after less than a month," said Casadei.
She said her children did not have bus service for most of last year.
"Luckily my husband and I both work from home so we can make arrangements. I just really feel for the families who can't. What do they do? We ended up carpooling with a single mom," said Casadei.
This year, the whole district will be dealing with cancellations.
"Four weeks with service, one week without," said Casadei. "I honestly think it's a lot more fair than putting the burden on a few families."
As families across Douglas County drive or carpool, Casadei expects chaos in the pickup line.
"Traffic. More traffic. It takes a long time to get through the lines, the parking lots are a mess," said Casadei.
There are also worries about the families who don't have the means to be flexible.
"There are some families who are just completely left in the lurch. And I just feel that they're forgotten about," said Casadei.
The reason behind it all? A shortage of bus drivers.
"We are down 104 bus drivers going into this school year," said Douglas County School District Superintendent Erin Kane.
The district says they can't afford to pay competitively among a national driver shortage.
"It's just not worth it. It was killing me," said Paula Del Rio.
Del Rio was a bus driver for DCSD for almost 20 years.
"I was being cussed out on a daily basis," Del Rio said.
She says she was fired in December after stepping off the bus to discipline a child who cussed at her.
"Things are thrown at us and we're told to just drive. I've been told more than once to just drive and not look in my mirror," Del Rio said.
Del Rio says the pay and the hours don't make it worth it for drivers to work for the district.
"We were working 50 to 60 hours just to cover all these routes," Del Rio said.
So for now, families will have to pick up the slack.
"Something needs to be done. This is crazy," said Casadei.
Tuesday night, the school board voted in their first meeting of the year unanimously to add a $66 million mill levy override and $484 million bond to the November ballot. They say those funds would provide money to pay staff, like bus drivers, more competitively.
