Pender County School Board looks at possible solutions to its bus driver shortage

"They are the first and last people that our students see each and every day. So, we want high-quality drivers. So, paying these drivers what they're worth is and increasing that goes a long way."

PENDER COUNTY (WWAY)–Bus driver shortages affect public transportation nationwide, especially in many school districts. For years, we’ve seen the challenge of bus driver shortages impact schools across the Cape Fear.
And the Superintendent of Pender County Schools, Brad Breedlove, is proposing a possible solution to the problem.

“I’ve been here two years now, and it seems like every year it gets harder and harder to maintain staff on buses,” Breedlove shared.

Breedlove suggests several solutions, like raising wages for our bus drivers, including the starting pay to $17.75, $1.50 more than the current starting rate. He also wants to add radios to the equation after it was said there were none on any of the buses.

“It’s not all about compensation, but compensation was our leading strategy that came out of our forums with our bus drivers. These are just simple things that we can improve as a school system,” Breedlove said.

He says drivers would often stress about having a livable wage and that the pay is not as competitive as other surrounding school systems, like New Hanover County, which starts their drivers off at $18.87 per hour.

“They are the first and last people that our students see each and every day. So, we want high-quality drivers. So, paying these drivers what they’re worth is and increasing that goes a long way,” Breedlove said.

Currently, the school system has 100 drivers, of which all 100 share 93 routes a day- 15 bus monitors, and is looking to add 10 more drivers to the roster. It’s not a permanent fix, but Breedlove says it’s enough to help alleviate the challenge they’re facing.

“A school system our size, that’s a lot of vacancies. So, you end up doing double routes and triple routes. That delays students on getting to school and getting home from school,” Breedlove explained.

The next step is to present the proposal to county commissioners for approval. To apply to become a bus driver, click here.