Horry County Schools still needs bus drivers

HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) — Horry County Schools currently has 50 vacant bus driver positions still needing to be filled.

Currently, the district has 350 filled. Director of communications Lisa Bourcier said that she’s unsure if the district will ever get to 100% of bus staffing filled.

Last year, HCS had 90 vacancies when it came to bus staff. Bourcier said COVID-19 played a role as it was one of the main struggles that came to filling positions. She said the hybrid schedules and limited hours may have been some of the reasons why they had even less staffing then.

But because the district is able to provide training in-house for those interested in driving the school buses and paying for a CDL License and certification, she said that’s helped the district more this year.

As the school year starts up soon, drivers will transport 25,000 students in the mornings and 27,000 students at night, makes it a a continuously hard role to fill with the amount of responsibility.

“It takes a certain person, of course, to be a bus driver. There’s a lot of responsibilities, not only keeping your eyes on the road, but you’re also in charge of several students on your bus as well,” Bourcier said. “So, it is challenging. It does take a certain person, so we do want to hire the best individuals that we can to provide those services to our students.”

Bourcier said bus routes are subject to change as new students will continue to be registered into the district at the beginning of the school year, encouraging parents to check in with their local bus offices to verify locations and times.

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Gabby Jonas joined the News13 team as a multimedia journalist in April 2024. She is from Columbus, Ohio, and graduated from Kent State University in May 2023. Follow Gabby on X, formerly Twitter , Facebook or Instagram , and read more of her work here .

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