Butler school bus drivers prepare for another year
Chrissy Kerr’s duties include inspecting her school bus before each trip, navigating the routes through all sorts of weather conditions to pick up students and then transporting them safely and on time.
During 26 years driving school buses, Kerr has done it all with a smile.
“I actually love what I do. I like the kids,” said Kerr, an employee of Valley Lines. “I enjoy them, I try to give them something. Not every child has a great life, but you can be the first smile they see of the day.”
School bus drivers for Butler Area School District have been doing dry runs of their routes this week, to prepare for the start of the new school year Aug. 28. While the district has struggled to maintain enough school bus drivers to accommodate all of its needs, transportation director Tabitha Scutt said the routes are built around what the district can manage.
“We do our best to design routes as efficiently as possible,” Scutt said. “Due to the driver shortage, unfortunately we have to make some adjustments and lengthen our routes more than we prefer.
“Our transportation contractor is doing their best to fill positions, but a shortage of drivers can impact routing and the length of the runs.”
According to Scutt, the transportation department has not had any staffing changes this year, but she and the other district administrators hope to continue hiring drivers to fill transportation needs as they arise.
While the routes may be a little longer on average, longtime bus drivers still enjoy the driving aspects of the job. William Wehr, a driver for Valley Lines, said he maintained his license to drive a school bus even throughout his years working as an administrator. He said the practice runs drivers make before school help make the process more efficient for everyone.
“Dry runs are a good thing because it’s a lot easier to find these addresses rather than the first day trying to look for kids,” Wehr said. “In the shortage the past several years, the district has had to reroute some of their runs and had to eliminate some routes because there wasn’t enough drivers.”
Scutt said drivers have to complete certification classes and get a certain number of driver training hours every four years, so once a driver is hired by Valley Lines, they are good to go for a while. Drivers also attend safety meetings throughout the school year, she said.
Kerr and Wehr both said while they are trained and have been driving school buses for decades, other people on the road have to also practice safe driving to keep the passengers on their buses — children — safe.
Kerr said people should be especially cautious once school starts up again, as drivers and children are getting accustomed to getting on and off the bus.
Kerr stressed drivers should not pass busses at stops.
“Children are coming out of the bus and you would not believe how many people do that,” she said.
