Bus Driver Shortage at Seward Schools

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The Seward school district is short handed right now on bus drivers and is looking to find new people to drive for the schools. Marty Telecky, transportation director at Seward Public Schools, talked about the shortage of bus drivers in Seward and what that means for the current drivers.

“Currently, our drivers have to do 11 bus routes a day, and we are short two drivers,” Telecky said. “We currently have to find sub drivers to cover those positions.”

Dr. Josh Fields, superintendent of Seward Public Schools, also talked about substitute drivers and how it affects the flow of the day.

“With the shortage of drivers, Marty is also having to be substitute driver probably about four to five times a week,” Fields said. “This creates issues because with Marty on the road, no one is at the bus garage to help if there would be issues, like a bus breaking down.”

The shortage isn’t just happening in Seward either. Telecky said he has seen a shortage in other places too.

“The shortage is nationwide,” Telecky said. “I just saw somebody over in Iowa saying that they are looking for more drivers due to the shortage. It’s happening in more places than just Seward.”

Some reasons the shortage is happening is the amount of training and lack of hours a bus driver gets.

“When you want to become a driver, you have to get through the class B CDL licensing, a bus endorsement, a physical and a background check. That all takes time,” Telecky said.

“It’s also hard, because drivers aren’t full time,” Fields said. “Typically, if someone is younger, they want to find a job that is going to get them 40 hours a week, but that’s hard to do as a bus driver. You’re only going to get about 15 to 20 hours a week.”

Although being a bus driver isn’t a full-time position, Telecky and Fields talked about some great benefits to being a bus driver. The benefits include flexible hours, interacting with kids and getting summers and holidays off.

“If they like kids and interacting with them, this is a good job,” Telecky said.

“The district also pays for the training and certifications that you would need to be a driver,” Fields said.

The school board is also working on raising wages for drivers to compare with other neighboring areas.

“We’re really looking at trying to be competitive with pay compared to other districts,” Fields said. “We’re really hoping to increase pay for each semester, and bonus pay depending on the amount of routes and activities you drive for.”

Fields also talked about having to make some changes if the district can’t find any more drivers.

“If we aren’t able to find any bus drivers, we may have to look at condensing routes,” Fields said.

If you are interested in becoming a bus driver for Seward Public Schools, contact the district office at (402) 643-2941 or come in to fill out an application. The average day for a bus driver is an hour and a half to two hours in the morning, and around the same for the afternoon.