Charleston County School District addresses school bus delays

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – The start of the second week of school at the Charleston County School District saw continued complaints about bus issues.

Kate Buckholz is a mom of three CCSD students who all attend different schools. She told News 2 her son’s bus route from Cario Middle School does not have a driver.

“My son rides the bus home and so about 2 pm, I get a message from the bus company that says, ‘oh sorry your route is not running,’ or ‘it has a sub,’ or ‘it’s been doubled up.’ And what’s happening is that then the bus runs the first route and we become the second route and so it takes, you know, an hour and a half for him to get home which is challenging in a lot of different ways,” Buckholz shared.

Similar stories flooded CCSD’s official Facebook group for parents this week. Screenshots showed long wait times, sometimes over an hour.

CCSD held a virtual news conference on Tuesday to address the issues. Superintendent Anita Huggins said, to date, the district has received 615 complaints out of the 22,000 students who use transportation.

The complaints were submitted on the district’s online complaint log.

“615 is a lot, but 615 complaints on the sixth day of school represents less than three percent of the students we serve,” said Huggins who has been responding to nearly every Facebook post to offer assistance.

District leaders acknowledged the need for school bus drivers. CCSD works with the company First Driver, who provides the buses and drivers for most of the district’s 395 routes and 5,470 stops.

“Over the summer, we did an aggressive recruiting campaign . We increased the driver wages. Right now, the starting pay for drivers without experience is $22.50 per hour and there’s a scale that’s in place. If you are a CDL driver with experience at five years or above, that’s the top pay at $31.50 per hour,” explained Gary Reese with First Student.

Officials from CCSD said 14 new drivers will start next week and another 41 are signed up for a paid training class to get certified. Elvin Speights briefly worked as a bus driver a few years ago and encouraged people to have patience, as the drivers face a lot of issues.

“Bus drivers are short. Right? So, you got drivers running double routes. And there’s a lot of things that hold a driver up. When we get to the school, you’ve got kids who are slow moving, not getting on the bus quickly. That’s a hold up. You’ve got a kid who, let’s say, isn’t on the bus who’s supposed to be on the bus. We have to check the verification. Those things hold up,” Speights explained.

Buckholz said she doesn’t believe the issue falls on the drivers or schools, but instead the district and the company. She added that she wished there had been more transparency.

CCSD officials encouraged families to use the complaint log because they use the trends to make changes in the future.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCBD News 2.