SAUGUS— The School Committee discussed potential solutions to a district bus driver shortage at its meeting Thursday night.
The issue was brought to the board’s attention by Pola Andrews, the School Executive Director of Finance and Administration, who said the district was finally able to secure a sixth bus, but that it simultaneously lost a bus driver.
“We’ve had children late for school, we’ve had children not picked up at all, that’s not acceptable,” Andrews said.
When asked by Committee Chairman Vincent Serino how the affected students were getting to school, Andrews said they have had to walk, carpool with others, or use ride-providing companies such as Uber.
Andrews said that the district is meeting with NRT Bus Inc. to discuss the ongoing problem. However, she asked the Committee to allow community parents to participate.
“I don’t want this to be adversarial,” Andrews said. “I want the parents to be able to have a voice and I want NRT to understand what an issue this is for our community and to hopefully resolve this quickly.”
The sixth bus acquisition was short-lived as Andrews revealed a bus broke down Wednesday afternoon during pickup at the Middle High School.
The Committee acknowledged that the overall bus shortage is common among many municipalities and expressed its desire for the school bus service to be more accountable.
“Maybe they should find a new spot to park their buses if they can’t accommodate us,” Committee member Thomas Whittredge said. “Right now they’re parking at the Oaklandvale, but if they can’t accommodate us then we shouldn’t be accommodating them.”
Serino said that while it may be difficult for NRT to hire bus drivers themselves, it is no excuse for poor communication.
“This to me is ridiculous,” Serino said. “It’s communication from them. ‘We don’t have a bus driver we’re not doing this route today,’ and then it’s incumbent on us to get the parents notified quicker.”
