LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A spokesperson for the Jefferson County School District said 59 bus drivers called out Friday. That’s nearly 10% of all drivers.
It appears to be a recurring theme for the district. JCPS has had dozens of sick call-outs from bus drivers throughout this week. Instead of calling in sick, some bus drivers gave up the job entirely before the new school year began.
Two former Jefferson County Bus Drivers said they are glad they retired before this year’s changes but they say the biggest issue is actually what’s happening inside the buses while they’re on the road.
Betty Self and Connie Barry are former JCPS bus drivers and long-time friends. Barry retired in 2021 after 20 years in the driver's seat. Self retired last year after 19 years.
“I just didn’t want to work another year. It was kind of I saw the writing on the wall,” said Betty Self.
She said that because there are a number of challenges the drivers are facing. This year, the biggest problem they heard of is discipline.
“Checking your mirrors, watching all of their traffic situations. It just is impossible. It is escalated to a point where it is impossible to control kids that are out of control and control your bus at the same time,” said Barry.
They said current drivers told them students are throwing things at cars, hanging out of windows and fighting.
“This new thing of tracking the buses, that is great, but now there is fighting on the bus and they track it, so by the time the driver gets to the bus stop there’s fifteen people there waiting to fight,” said Self.
Spectrum News 1 asked the district about this and they said there are no complaints about this and they don’t believe the app adds any potential danger. Self said when a fight breaks out, all drivers can do is stop the bus and let the school district know of the student’s behavior, which she said often leads to nothing.
“You can write 20 referrals a day, but they aren’t going to do anything about it,” said Self.
The district shared their policy for when there is a fight on a bus
“Drivers must make an effort to get the fight to stop and cannot ignore the situation. Drivers are required to pull over in a safe location and contact the compound to report the fight and the compound will call the police, if needed,” said Mark Hebert, communications manager with JCPS.
While handling those situations, Barry said, they are working long days, driving over 200 miles a day with minimal breaks.
“There’s no downtime. They had to get from point a to point b and they’re on time constraints and there’s no time for them to even take a break to go to the bathroom,” said Barry.
The district said drivers are given 10-minute breaks every four hours. The former drivers said because of these problems, drivers who are near retirement, like Self was, are having a hard time making it to their 20th year of service, which makes them eligible for their pension.
“We have many friends that are bus drivers that are three and four years away from retirement and they are struggling, struggling really bad to try to make it to that timeframe. They’re struggling really bad,” said Barry.
Barry and Self want to be voices for current drivers to help them feel supported.
No changes to the current transportation plan are expected until next school year.