Mother and father Pissed off With Delays Whereas The District Is ‘Determined For Heat Our bodies’ To Fill Bus Driver Vacancies
In case your baby rides a college bus to and from faculty, they could be arriving to highschool properly after the late bell, and you might not even know. Or, you might be like many different mother and father who’re conscious of the problems with late buses — choosing up late within the morning, dropping off late at college, or being dropped off late within the afternoon when coming residence — and really feel like there isn’t a lot that may be achieved about it.
We’ve got spoken with Pasco County College District officers, involved mother and father and present and former college students, and reviewed on-line neighborhood posts — together with some posts straight from the bus drivers themselves — and even noticed the buses ourselves. All of this has opened our eyes to some important points with Pasco County Colleges’ Transportation Providers for the colleges situated in Wesley Chapel.
However, we even have discovered that every one of it is a symptom of a a lot greater downside — one the District is conscious of and truly acknowledges.
Pasco Colleges public info officer Jessica Meek says, “Our district continues to really feel the affect of the continuing bus driver scarcity, and we’re continuously taking steps to deal with this nationwide problem….we’ve a robust and ongoing concentrate on lowering transportation delays and guaranteeing our routes run as effectively as potential.”
So, simply how in need of drivers is the District? What number of further drivers are wanted District-wide? College District officers say that shortfall quantity is 59. That’s a reasonably important scarcity — virtually precisely 20% — contemplating the full variety of operational (working) buses within the fleet is 297, with the District stating that, “[There’s] no scarcity of automobiles, simply drivers.”
However, simply how unhealthy is it precisely? One native driver of practically 25 years (whose employment we verified however determined to not identify them for this article) put a remark out on social media final month stating that there was, “..desperation for heat our bodies…” relating to the District’s ongoing efforts to recruit and retain drivers. The motive force additionally implied that not all drivers they at present have could also be finest fitted to the job, or suitable with the children they’re driving round.
One native Wesley Chapel mother or father, Dr. Lorraine Tracey, says she has been feeling the consequences of driver shortages on an almost each day foundation. Regarding the late buses, she believes, “It truly is an issue, with no options within the works, besides attempting the identical factor again and again, and making no progress.”
Lorraine works a full-time profession in scientific growth, for the remedy of life-threatening illnesses, and has a son and a daughter who attend two totally different native faculties — one who’s at John Lengthy Center College and the opposite who attends Wiregrass Ranch Excessive. Each journey the bus.
She forwarded to us all the emails between her and the College District. Like many native mother and father, Lorraine is pissed off with the state of affairs. “It seems like it doesn’t matter what I do, or what I say, I’m simply banging my head towards a wall.”
How The 2025-26 College 12 months Began
Transportation issues are sometimes worse in the beginning of the varsity 12 months for everybody, and that’s as a result of the District’s Transportation Providers Division faces the Herculean job of coordinating the logistics to get 33,000 college students (the most recent complete variety of pupil bus riders, in accordance with the College District) throughout Pasco’s 868 sq. miles, with buses originating from six totally different bus compounds.
And, similar to the remainder of us, buses must cope with site visitors, particularly the site visitors entering into and out of the colleges themselves.
Lorraine believes that lots of the faculty bus drivers have been being set as much as fail early on by being given inconceivable routes. She seemed on the variety of stops, how far aside they have been, and the place they needed to come from, so as to be on time to her son’s cease — and advised us that, “until the bus driver found out the best way to fly the bus, they have been by no means going to be on time.”
She mentioned that it’s ironic, as a result of in the beginning of the varsity 12 months, a message was despatched out to all mother and father from Pasco’s Superintendent of Colleges Dr. John Legg that said, partially, “Each minute of tutorial time issues.” Lorraine feels that as a result of busing points, the College District and College Board members aren’t dwelling as much as their guarantees to the scholars, and he or she despatched detailed emails to all of them explaining that.
These emails from the start of this faculty 12 months said that her son’s bus (Route Z520A) was constantly late exhibiting as much as his cease, typically working as a lot as an hour (or presumably extra) behind. She even compiled a chart (proper) to doc the delays.
And, Lorraine wasn’t alone both. Quite a few local people Fb teams have been ripe with posts about mother and father having to take their children to highschool as a result of buses have been attending to stops extraordinarily late — half-hour, 40 minutes, an hour even…which has been happening for a few years, from what we might discover.
Michael Santus, the supervisor of Transportation Providers for Pasco Colleges, replied to Lorraine’s e mail with this boilerplate response:
“As ridership patterns stabilize, route timing naturally adjusts. For instance, through the first two weeks of college, buses cease at each designated location. After this preliminary interval, stops with out riders are eliminated to streamline the route. This is without doubt one of the some ways our routing group works to boost general effectivity.”
A later e mail he despatched particularly about Lorraine’s son’s bus said, “It seems that ridership is starting to stabilize. The bus arrived on the cease at 8:09 am this morning and arrived at college at 8:17 a.m. Whereas it was nonetheless late, it’s 7 minutes late vs. 25 minutes yesterday and 39 minutes the day prior. I’ll proceed to observe its progress for you.”
Lorraine advised us, “What made it worse was that I needed to often name the varsity and fill out an ‘absent’ kind every day for 2 weeks, till the varsity found out some resolution, as a result of his tardiness was inflicting him to not present up at attendance.”
Whereas she acknowledges that there was some enchancment for the reason that starting of the 12 months, regarding the recurring late pick-ups (she says her son’s bus does present as much as the morning cease on time now), however that there are nonetheless points with the frequent late drop-offs at Wiregrass Ranch Excessive, and that these haven’t improved, even at this level, two full months into the 2025- 26 faculty 12 months.
She worries that that is having a damaging affect on schooling. “His first interval is Spanish 3 Honors,” she says. “It’s an vital class, and he can’t actually make up that point.”
Coping with all the points along with her son’s bus, Lorraine was stunned, on the morning of Sept. 19, when she obtained a textual content from her daughter stating that her bus for John Lengthy hadn’t proven up, and he or she didn’t know what to do. Lorraine wasn’t out there, and neither was an in depth household pal who lived close by. An older sibling of a fellow John Lengthy pupil that Lorraine didn’t know supplied to drive the scholars to the varsity, and he or she accepted, since there wasn’t a lot different selection.
In response to the District’s response, once we independently confirmed the report of this incident, they defined that the bus did get there that morning, however it was properly over an hour after it was purported to arrive. Officers additional defined that, “There must be no circumstances the place a bus doesn’t present up, simply delayed.” No clarification was supplied as to why the bus was that late.
When listening to of the District’s official response, Lorraine responded to us, “Yep, let’s depart center schoolers on the aspect of the street for [more than] an hour.”
The College students’ Perspective
Our preliminary analysis rapidly uncovered that this was possible a a lot greater, District-wide, systemic downside, the place if it affected one household this a lot, there have been possible many extra households affected in precisely the identical manner.
We wished to grasp what this seemed like inside the varsity — get an thought of what number of buses and youngsters have been coming in late — so we individually interviewed a present and a former pupil of Wiregrass Ranch Excessive, each of whom requested to not be named.
The present pupil (a freshman) mentioned that of their first interval class, “4 to five college students per day are late, attending to class not less than 5 minutes, and as much as quarter-hour [after the bell].” They defined that almost all are “tardies” attributable to the buses.
In the meantime, the previous pupil mentioned that final 12 months, throughout their first interval class (after they have been a freshman), there have been “8 to 9 per day, principally as a result of bus, who got here in 10 to twenty minutes [after the bell].”
They additional defined that, “They’d hand you [the late students] a tardy slip as you bought off the bus to offer to the instructor. This had develop into a standard factor, a lot in order that the varsity wanted to start out doing them in several colours every day, …inexperienced, pink, orange, purple, in order to not be reused by the scholars.”
Our response to all of this information? “Wow.”
Though neither of those college students is using the bus this 12 months — which might have given them an much more correct thought of the tardies — as a result of these two college students have been all the time at school earlier than the late bell rang, they mentioned it was such a standard downside, virtually each pupil is aware of how unhealthy it’s, whether or not they’re bus riders or not.
We adopted up and requested the Transportation Providers officers particularly: “What number of tardies (roughly) of your college students are a direct results of busing points? This might be a quantity, a basic vary and even an estimated share.”
They apologized and said that it might take too lengthy to drag and compile that knowledge earlier than our story deadline, however that it’s publicly out there knowledge for anybody who needs it by filling out a “Public Information Request Kind” on the College District’s web site.
Nonetheless, the officers did additionally confirm the necessity to have workers handle bulk late pupil arrivals, responding: “There have been some small revisions to accommodate for pupil supervision (in different phrases, modifying responsibility schedules)” once we requested if the person faculties needed to make direct changes to their operations to compensate for busing points.
What We Found First-Hand
With the scholars explaining to us what number of of their friends have been late each day to first interval, we determined that we needed to see first-hand for ourselves what that translated to, by way of the buses.
We discovered that almost all buses do get to the colleges with loads of time to spare, arriving anyplace between 10 to twenty minutes earlier than the late bell. However, the variety of late buses was shocking, not less than on the two faculties we selected to look into — John Lengthy Center and Wiregrass Ranch Excessive.
We picked a random Thursday this month — Oct. 16 — to exit and straight observe the buses coming into the varsity properties (from the adjoining public right-of-way). We noticed a number of buses arriving to the varsity properties after the late bell had already rang.
For every one we noticed, we wrote down the bus quantity and the time they crossed onto the property. We then despatched these bus numbers to the District, to ask them what time their information confirmed that these buses arrived. They confirmed right down to inside 1 minute of accuracy that our observations have been in step with their information.
We discovered that two buses arrived late to John Lengthy and not less than three buses full of scholars (there was one discrepancy with a fourth) arrived late to Wiregrass Ranch.
Once we requested if there are any proactive steps the colleges are taking to make the bus drop-off and pick-ups smoother or much less time-consuming, the District officers advised us that, “All directors take a look at the techniques they’ve in place annually to make sure it’s the best process for his or her campuses.”
Realizing the Wiregrass Ranch campus is very overcapacity (with 2,183 college students enrolled this 12 months, it’s at 140% of its capability), we requested if this could trigger any effectivity points with busing.
The District replied that, “The routes get reevaluated annually, to accommodate for pupil progress. The problems with busing are a direct results of bus driver shortages, not capability points.”
We did observe one intelligent trick that the buses going to the center faculty have been doing to keep away from site visitors and save time — one which was completely secure and authorized (for the buses), however that we aren’t going to elucidate, so different drivers don’t attempt to replicate it — however it was a really distinctive “route” that exhibits they’re attempting to be ingenious in not less than one option to save time.
There have been another enhancements, too. A minimum of one Pasco mother or father that we reached out to, who additionally had important complaints about busing final 12 months, stating that her son was typically arriving again residence greater than two hours after faculty ended. That mother or father advised us that, “It’s lots higher this 12 months,” when requested for a remark.
The ‘Wheres The Bus?’ App
A comparatively new GPS-enabled bus monitoring system, a cellphone app fittingly known as (and misspelled) “Wheres the Bus?” (left) not less than permits mother and father to see precisely the place the varsity bus is on a map, and actively monitor it. This app was launched in 2023 for Pasco and is offered for fogeys to obtain from Google Play or the Apple App Retailer — however there could also be a difficulty with it.
We requested the District, when a bus is arriving late to a faculty, and drops off college students previous the late bell time, does the “Wheres the Bus?” app notify mother and father of the late drop off, or are mother and father notified some other manner of the late drop off?
They responded, “If a mother or father is utilizing the mother or father app, and their baby indicators out and in [when getting on and off the bus] they’ll monitor this particular info, however there’s not a separate notification. Nonetheless, mother and father must be getting notifications by means of MyStudent if a bus goes to be late choosing up or dropping off their baby.”
Lorraine said that whereas she does get notifications on her cellphone about late morning pickups, it’s not all the time that correct, saying that the occasions proven could be a little bit off, however she defined that so far as monitoring the occasions when her son will get on and off the bus (to confirm his late arrival to the varsity), when she goes into the app, it solely exhibits the occasions for that day, which resets the next day, and he or she hasn’t been capable of finding the historic knowledge anyplace within the app.
Which means some mother and father could not even know that their youngsters are arriving late to highschool, until their baby tells them, or they actively go into the app to view the stay map exhibiting the placement of the bus, or overview the pick-up and drop-off occasions for that day themselves, on that particular day.
The Determined Want For Drivers
Lorraine advised us that she felt barely insulted when she was emailing the District about her critical considerations, as a result of in a response she obtained from Nichole Schreiber, a subject service specialist with the District’s Transportation Providers Dept., Schreiber mentioned, “If you realize anybody who wish to be a part of the transportation workers, we’d drastically respect it!”
In different phrases, Lorraine says, as a substitute of the District arising with options, “It shifts the burden to oldsters by suggesting that we have to assist recruit workers, which is neither our duty nor a sensible resolution to making sure well timed and dependable transportation within the rapid time period.”
She additionally joked with us that they have to be actually determined if they need her to drive a bus.
However, District officers admit that the ARE desperately attempting to recruit assist, virtually any manner they’ll, they usually’re positively not shy about it. However, are these efforts to the potential detriment OR enhancement of public security and repair?
Again in 2021, Pasco’s former Superintendent of Colleges Kurt Browning’s workers prompt utilizing the Nationwide Guard to assist with the bus driver scarcity. It was in the end turned down as a result of there was no formally declared state of emergency.
The District has organized a number of hiring occasions, some upcoming, to attempt to recruit drivers. The subsequent one might be on Thursday, November 6, 4 p.m.-6 p.m., on the District Workplace (7227 Land O’Lakes Blvd., Land O’ Lakes, FL 34638).
Pasco Colleges Transportation Providers advertises the advantages they provide to drivers as:
• Free medical insurance
• Paid day off
• Paid holidays
• Retirement plans
• Paid CDL (industrial drivers license)
prep course
• $18.15/hour beginning pay
The web site says that the District ensures not less than 6 hours of labor per day in a break up shift, however that almost all routes are longer than 6 hours.
The Pasco Colleges Transportation Providers Dept. could be reached throughout enterprise hours Monday-Friday at (813) 320-2562 to take your questions, feedback and/or complaints.
