KANSAS CITY, Mo. — There aren't enough school bus drivers in the Olathe School District and that could mean more changes in how students get to school in the fall.
District Superintendent Dr. Brent Yeager told the school board at Thursday night's meeting the district's administrative team and others have been working for months on ways to maintain access to dependable school bus service.
Yeager stressed DS Bus Lines, the company that provides school bus service for the district, is working with administrators to find solutions and Yeager told the board it's not as easy as merely switching to another school bus service company.
The driver shortage forced the Kansas City area's largest school district to impose school bus service blackouts once a week and families had to find other ways to get their children to schools.
"We know this is a band-aid solution and we need a long term solution," Yeager said.
Dr. Jim McMullen, the district's assistant superintendent of middle school education, laid out what a continuing school bus driver shortage could mean for the next school year.
Those include continued or increased rolling transportation blackouts, reduction and/or elimination of safety variances in transportation, further reductions in field trips and continued early dismissal and missed class time for athletic and activity events.
In addition, the district is still studying changes to its bell schedules for the 2024-25 school year.
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