Henry County hiring 50 bus drivers to get kids home quicker, stop running extra routes

Nearly a month into the school year, Henry County is looking to hire 50 bus drivers.

Earlier this month, Channel 2′s Christian Jennings told you about a 5-year-old girl who rode around on a Henry County school bus for hours after falling asleep.

The school district has now told Jennings that all of their bus routes are covered, but they want to hire dozens more drivers to get better pick-up and drop-off times for students and cut down on problems.

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Right now, some drivers are having to transport elementary schoolers and then come back for high schoolers and then a third time for middle schoolers, which is what the district wants to stop.

“Transportation is always a challenge at the start of each school year,” Henry County Schools Director of Communications Kyle Sears said. “We currently have about 40 prospective drivers in various stages of training, but we also have a lot of new drivers on the road. In our fleet, we added 56 new drivers this school year.”

Jada Nichols and another Dutchtown Elementary School student fell asleep on the bus after school and ended up riding on the bus for three hours without the driver realizing.

“Every time I get on the hot bus, I just fall asleep,” the 5-year-old said.

That driver even picked up high schoolers on the same bus and still didn’t notice the younger children.

“Certainly checking the bus after each route is expected of all drivers,” Sears said.

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He said that the driver is still driving for Henry County.

“Anytime we have a situation where maybe those expectations aren’t followed, Transportation addresses with the employee and uses it as a teaching experience for all drivers,” Sears said.

After Channel 2 Action News ’ first story, parents began calling our newsroom complaining about kids being dropped off late in the afternoon and picked up early in the morning.

“Our drivers are becoming more accustomed to the routes our schools becoming more efficient releasing buses at dismissal and every new driver we can get trained is taking extra runs off our existing drivers,” Sears explained.

If you’re interested in becoming a Henry County bus driver, click here .

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