Theresa Cherry, principal of Center Township Elementary School, said a shortage of school support personnel is affecting students for multiple reasons.

She told the Butler Area school board at a Monday meeting of the Committee of the Whole that one of her top priorities for Center Township Elementary was for more paraprofessionals at the school, with transportation time being an issue for students.

“Right now with the unmonitored bus situation, some of the kids are on the bus for over an hour in order to make it most efficient and have the least amount of buses,” Cherry said. “They have to be that way just because we don’t have the people.”

The school board discussed the ongoing need for support personnel at its meeting Monday, after Cherry presented an update about Center Township Elementary.

District superintendent Brian White said in particular that paraprofessionals and monitor staffers are needed by many schools, including Center Township Elementary. He said previously that student behavioral issues in certain schools led the district to need more monitor personnel for less supervised places like buses and cafeterias.

However, White also acknowledged that positions in similar areas need to be filled in many local school districts.

“Pretty much all support positions, any part-time position, we have an opening in this district right now and sometimes full-time ones as well,” White said. “The problem is everyone is trying; there’s not enough people in the workforce right now to take the jobs on.”

According to White, government entities from the school board up to the federal government have been looking for solutions to the problem of a shrinking job pool for public jobs. As he explained to the board, there has yet to be any major movement on a widespread solution.

White told the board about a letter the state wrote in response to a U.S. Department of Transportation bipartisan decree temporarily waiving the “under the hood” section of the commercial driver’s license test for bus drivers. In the letter, the state rejected the waiver, saying the plan was not comprehensive in addressing the shortage of drivers.

White said bus drivers must know the parts of the engine to pass the test, but most call roadside service if they have a problem on the road.

“The federal government does these things and doesn’t think through all the ramifications,” White said. “We had the fanfare that we found a solution, and then turns out we really didn’t.”

White said having ninth grade at the senior high school and fifth grade students at elementary schools could help alleviate long school bus ride times by cutting down on the number of bus routes.

As of Feb. 16, the Butler Area School District website lists 15 open positions. The site lists five openings in the support category and four openings in the maintenance/custodial category.