FCPS pushes through school bus driver shortage

FREDERICK COUNTY, Md. ( DC News Now ) — It’s been all hands on deck at Frederick County Public Schools (FCPS) as officials work to deal with a shortage of school bus drivers.

The FCPS Department of Transportation said it is doing everything it can to make sure all routes are covered, but there are a lot of positions to fill.

“We have 25 open vacancies, we have 10 drivers that are on long-term leave, and then we have our daily absences — so what that’s created is a situation where we have about 40 to 50 routes each day that we need to cover in some way,” Executive Director of Transportation Dr. Daniel Lippy said.

To fill the vacancies, the department has pulled people from the office to help out on routes — including Jeannie Thompson.

“Certainly makes our jobs much more challenging, we have families that expect a school bus to come and pick their kids up so that they can access their education, so that becomes personal to me because I think we all care about the kids, and that’s why we’re here,” Thompson said.

The department is hard at work getting new drivers certified

“We have 12 drivers enrolled in class in the next two weeks,” Lippy explained. “We are hoping to be able to keep eight or nine of them so that we’ll be able to reduce the vacancies.”

“My director and my teammates, we’re hoping to fill every route and be able to replenish our sub-pools so that those daily call-ins can be covered,” Thompson said.

FCPS encourages parents to keep an eye on their transportation status board to receive any updates on bus times.

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