Help Needed: SMSD and nearby districts feel the effects of the current bus driver shortage

Bus driver numbers across the Shawnee Mission School District are declining due to the national bus driver shortage during this year’s back-to-school season. 

Coordinating rides to get kids to school has become difficult in the Kansas City area since the transition from COVID virtual learning to in-person classes, according to Principal Jason Peres. 

“[The bus driver shortage] has been ongoing for quite some time for [East],” Peres said. “We really struggled with this and have never recovered.”

Finding buses to take kids to extracurriculars has been an issue because the drivers that would normally be assigned to take students from East to sports games in the afternoons or field trips in the mornings are assigned to different schools for pick-up and drop-off.

According to Peres, a bus from DS Bus Lines — the bus company used by SMSD — is not available for 30 minutes before or after pickup. For example, if a school bus picks up kids at an elementary school at 3:30 p.m., that same bus driver isn’t available to do any routes from 3 to 4 p.m. DS Bus Lines did not respond to requests for a comment.

“Our bus company currently does not have enough staff to guarantee us routes in the afternoon [to sports games] because they have to take kids home from school,” Peres said. “So what we’ve had to do as a school is bump up [extracurriculars to leave] much earlier in the day and get to their location much earlier and wait to play.”

This issue is the same for academic field trips. Buses are only available to transport kids at 8:45 a.m. and are required to be back by 2 p.m.. Social worker Emily MacNaughton planned a field trip for her Social Skills students at TimberRidge Adventure Center — a facility used to help groups build teamwork — starting at 9 a.m., but the buses can’t take the group until 8:45 a.m.. 

Social skills cadet teacher and junior Naomi Kincaid thinks that the late arrival to the field trip will be more complicated since there is less time to arrive at the destination.

“It’s definitely a little bit difficult with timing just because it takes like 20 to 25 minutes to get there,” Kincaid said. “I know normally before the bus shortage we would be leaving earlier around eight so it’s just different now.”

Kevin LeManske, a bus driver for DS Bus Lines for 11 years, believes that the root of the problem lies in a lack of certified bus drivers. Nearby school districts have experienced this, such as Park Hill School District who changed their bell schedule — with a 55-minute earlier start time and 10-minute later end time — and bus routes for this school year to accommodate for unavailable buses. Even the Blue Valley School District voted to eliminate 10 bus routes last spring — impacting approximately 764 students throughout the district.

“I’ve been [with DS Bus Lines] 11 years and I can’t remember a time where there wasn’t a shortage,” LeManske said. “I think it’s a law of supply and demand. You just can’t get enough [drivers] qualified.”

In order to become a DS Bus Lines driver, one has to pass a background check — including having a good driving record. After passing this appraisal, the applicant must then go through a series of driving tests. Once hired as a bus driver, an annual check-up is scheduled to keep healthy habits.

“[You have to be] physically fit,” LeManske said. “I know a lot of us don’t look physically fit, but we’re healthy or we wouldn’t be driving.”

According to Indeed, DS Bus Lines is ranked 2.9 out of 5 stars for “Job Security and Advancement,” but bus drivers such as LeManske and DS Bus Lines driver Barry Bennett don’t do it for job security — they do it for the love of the job. The kids. The driving. The bus drivers who are still driving think bus driving is so much more than the stereotype of a child wrangler. 

“I love what I do,” Bennett said. “As soon as I drove a school bus I [realized] driving a bus was something that I loved to do. It’s not like working to me.