In Georgetown ISD, worker shortages have forced the district to adapt and make do with the staff it has so programs and services are not interrupted. In the weeks leading up to the start of school, the district was actively looking to fill vacant auxiliary positions in several departments.
It’s vacancies in the transportation department, though, that are often noticed first, GISD bus driver Steve Ledbetter said.
“Everybody notices when their kids are unable to be picked up on a bus route and driven to the school,” he said.
Out of 100 budgeted bus driver positions at GISD, the district was short 12 drivers as of July 19. The transportation department also had six vacancies for bus aides, for which the district has 26 total positions.
Meanwhile, nutrition services had 20 vacancies in its 114-person department, and the district was down three maintenance staff out of 41 positions.
In response to the driver shortage, the GISD board of trustees voted June 19 to expand the district’s nonservice bus area to students living within 2 miles of school. It was previously 1 mile.
The change will impact roughly 420 students out of the 6,000 GISD transports daily, Executive Director of Support Services Kirby Campbell told trustees during a monthly workshop meeting.
This radius is not unusual for many school districts throughout the region. Leander and Round Rock ISDs both have 2-mile nonservice zones unless the route to a student’s neighborhood is considered hazardous.
Campbell said the service zone change is a product of a growing city, a competitive industry and effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“That affects people and families who previously rode the bus for however many years,” he said. “Now, this coming school year, they’re having to find ways to get their child to and from school every day.”
Changing landscape
Prior to 2020, many of the bus driver positions in Georgetown were filled by residents of Sun City, an age-restricted community with over 15,000 people. Once the pandemic arrived, many of those individuals left GISD’s bus driver team.
“You’re in a confined space, and you’re all breathing the same oxygen,” Ledbetter said. “If somebody happens to be sick, it usually spreads a little bit. With COVID, we had quite a few drivers that just weren’t able to come back because of fear of contracting that virus.”
The city of Georgetown has also grown in population, which has created more traffic and farther distances for drivers to travel. For example, it could take students living in the Santa Rita Ranch development 25-30 minutes to get to their school.
These types of scenarios have officials considering changes to bell schedules in the future, following what other districts have done to stagger student release times so fewer buses are needed at one time.
“You have to look at the time it takes to pick up kids in one area and get them to the school, which at some point in the future, [GISD] might have to look at some of those bell schedules and adjust that because it’s just getting hard to get around town,” said Sue Harrison, GISD executive director of human resources.
Support staff shortages are not unique to GISD, either. Leander and Liberty Hill ISDs are facing similar challenges: 52% of bus driver positions in LISD and 60% of bus driver positions in LHISD are vacant. These neighboring districts also have worse shortages than GISD in the child nutrition services department and among custodial staff.
Finding maintenance staff, groundskeepers, food service workers and other workers has become increasingly difficult, especially as these positions are in demand across other industries, Campbell said.
“[Commercial driver’s license] bus drivers are the hardest out of that group to recruit because of the licensing part of that and the requirements you have to have to become a CDL driver,” he said. “Outside of the school bus industry, people need cement truck drivers, box truck drivers.”
Staffing solutions
Districts such as GISD are finding creative ways to work around the ongoing shortages and recruit new staff to their ranks. Sometimes it requires asking staff to take on different tasks.
“We have a group of mechanics that have their CDL, and our transportation office staff have their CDL,” Harrison said. “On days when somebody might call in or when there’s a shortage, then other staff will step up and drive the bus so we can get kids to and from school.”
Offering a competitive wage is another factor districts take into consideration. In March, GISD’s board approved a 3% pay raise for employees, bringing the pay for bus drivers from $20 an hour to $21 an hour.
“We also changed our pay scale,” Campbell said. “If you have experience, we’re going to try to increase your pay faster to be more competitive among the neighboring districts.”
The district frequently holds job fairs, purchases advertising, posts banners, distributes bumper stickers, makes social media posts and asks employees to spread the word. GISD also tries to utilize its partnerships with local governments.
Melinda Brasher, GISD’s executive director for communications and community engagement, said GISD, the city of Georgetown and Williamson County share a similar audience.
“They’ll reach out and ask if we can get this message to our people and vice versa,” she said. “So when we’re doing job fairs, when we’ve got super shortages and are needing some support, we will reach out to the city and the county and share our communication channels and resources.”
One message GISD is trying to spread to potential employees is what the workplace experience will be like. Ledbetter said those who join the district’s ranks will find fulfillment working for students in addition to a positive culture and climate.
“You’re not going to find a better part-time job with the benefits and pay you’re given,” Ledbetter said. “As far as I’m concerned, it is probably one of the best deals out there, but being able to keep workers seems to me that it’s more of a cultural thing right now than it is the actual task of driving.”
