AKRON, Ohio — Editor's note: The video in the player above is from a previously published story.
For a third straight day, Akron Public School officials are announcing significant bus delays due to driver shortages.
The Northeast Ohio school district announced Tuesday afternoon that more families can expect to see pickup delays on Wednesday, December 8, as buses in operation work to cover multiple routes.
Students on the following buses can expect delays:
- #433 - STEM, King CLC
- #454 - Summit Christian Academy, Chapel Hill North
- #466 - Litchfield CLC, Schumacher CLC
- #467 - Jennings CLC, Harris-Jackson CLC (main campus)
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“The nationwide labor issues that everybody knows about by now have affected public schools, probably all schools, but public schools, pretty dramatically,” said Mark Williamson, Director of Marketing Communications for Akron Public Schools, in an interview with 3News' Isabel Lawrence on Tuesday. “We’ve had shortages of subs, teachers, tutors, educational assistants and bus drivers.”
The school district currently has 72 buses that cover 200 routes.
With upcoming days off planned for the holidays, plus cases of COVID-19, the staffing challenge continues. Williamson said five drivers currently have COVID-19, and those who have COVID have to stay off work for at least 10 days. Additionally, the district is having a hard time hiring new drivers due to the sensitive nature of the job.
“Bus drivers take a long time to hire. They don’t just walk in and you hire them, they have to go through training, and some need to get a CDL,” he said. “It can take weeks from the time that we find somebody that we want to the time they can actually start driving a bus with kids on it. It’s a slower process.”
This is a developing story. Check back with 3News for updates.
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