OLDHAM COUNTY, Ky. — For the last 17 years, life for Robin Yahl has been all about training up-and-coming bus drivers for Oldham County Schools.

Beverly Davis is one of those bus drivers. She is making the switch from bus monitor to the driver’s seat.

“Been thinking about it for years and just been rolling around, rolling around and finally, there’s nothing physically wrong with me. I wanted a change, so I just decided to go ahead and do it,” Davis said.

She was an addition Oldham County Schools desperately needed.

Robin Yahl, training new school bus driver Beverly Davis before the first day of school on August 10, 2022. (Spectrum News 1/Erin WIlson)

“We are currently short about 23 drivers, we have 75 routes total so to have a driver for every route we need about 23 more drivers, we have a couple in class right now,” said Lori Webb, director of communications for Oldham County Schools.

Last school year, school bus drivers felt the heat of the shortage.

“We did a lot of double, triple runs, I think we laughed, we even had some quadruple runs at some point so it was tough we were struggling but we got it done,” Robin Yahl, open route driver trainer for Oldham County Schools said.

That’s why Oldham County Schools are pushing their start and dismissal times back for middle and high school students.

“We want all of our kids there on time, so in an effort to alleviate that, we changed the start and end times for our middle and high schools,” Webb said.

Middle and high school students who attend an Oldham County School will now start at 9 a.m. and end at 4 p.m., compared to the 8:45 a.m. and 3:45 p.m. start and end time last school year.

That 15 minutes may not seem like much, but to the ones in the driver’s seat like Yahl, it means a difference.

“The 15 minute change… is going to be a game changer for transportation. Last year a lot of the double runs and even the triple runs that were coming in were getting there by 9,” Yahl said.

That’s exactly why Davis wanted to step up and help.

“It makes me feel good that I’m just taking a little bit of the burden, maybe just a fraction of the burden off of some of them so it was time for me to do it, it was time for me to do what I needed to do,” Davis said.

Oldham County Schools plans to keep the new time change in effect the entire 2022-2023 school year but may reconsider next school year based on school bus driver numbers.

High school parents have had a few concerns regarding the time change and students that have jobs after school, and concerns about getting to sporting events on time.