Some school bus drivers are worried as Midlands districts prep for students’ return
When schoolchildren go back to class this fall, the first encounter with a COVID-19-altered school system many will have will be when the bus stops to pick them up.
The S.C. Department of Education recently announced its guidelines for relaunching the state’s school buses in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, including a requirement that students wear masks. Also, buses may operate at 67% capacity if proper cleaning procedures are followed.
In the Midlands, local school districts are preparing to reopen schools within weeks, including sending out the buses that will ferry children there and back again. But some are worried about how buses can safely operate in the age of COVID-19.
Tommy Hively is a 72-year-old bus driver in Lexington 1. But even with the increased risk of a serious coronavirus infection at his age, Hively says he can’t wait to get back to work.
“We’ve always been exposed before, with flus and colds and runny noses,” Hively said. “I had bypass surgery a year and a half ago, but I don’t feel uncomfortable with a mask and gloves on. I miss my work... The (drivers) I’ve talked to are all ready to go. I wish we were going back tomorrow.”
But other drivers have expressed concerns, and some have quit.
Jada Garris, a former bus driver who now serves on the Lexington 1 school board, said many drivers are not yet aware of what will be required of them, and most haven’t been consulted on school districts’ reopening plans.
“Bus drivers have not been included,” Garris said. “They were not part of any committee formed for the task force on the reentry plan. They have no idea what the routes are, or how they’re supposed to clean.”
Education Department spokesman Ryan Brown said it’s not clear yet how much strain reducing bus capacity will put on the fleet, which is owned by the state, because it’s not yet clear how many students will be attending classes in person as opposed to using the virtual-only option many school districts have adopted.
He said students should not see an increase in rider time, but some buses may need to “double up” routes to drop off one group of students and pick up another, potentially starting routes earlier or finishing later.
“This happens during normal school operations in some areas of the state so the logistics of this are not a huge issue. We have statewide routing software that assists with this.”
The Lexington 1 and Richland 2 districts have said they do not expect children to have to ride longer. In Lexington-Richland 5, transportation director Dave Weissman said loading and unloading times are likely to increase in order to accommodate social distancing.
Richland 2 spokeswoman Libby Roof said the district has conducted trial runs of its fall bus routes, and decided drivers would have to pick up students in segments, transporting one group to school and then picking up another.
“Students may have last year boarded the bus at 7:30 a.m. and gotten home by 3:30 p.m.,” said Richland 2 spokeswoman Ishmael Abdus-Saboor. “This year they may get on the same bus at 6:45 a.m. and get home at 4:30 p.m. or 5 p.m.”
Other districts had not conducted similar trial runs, although LR5 monitored bus operations during its summer programs and did not identify any significant issues.
On Tuesday, Lexington 1 said school dismissal times may be staggered as children are dismissed one-by-one from their classrooms. Lexington 1 transportation director Bill Kurts said the district is still working on how to redesign its bus routes for the fall.
Once that is complete, the district plans to test several of the routes to verify the anticipate times.
“Children who registered will have an assigned seat before they even board the bus,” Kurts said. “The assigned seats will be from rear to front of the bus and how they board the bus along the route. For instance, if a child is the first to board, they will be sitting in the rear of the bus. This will allow students from passing each other on the school bus.”
Garris worries that some drivers will end up tripling the number of routes they have to drive, leaving some students waiting longer to leave school at the end of the day.
Bus drivers will be provided with masks to hand out to students who board buses without them — part of the 1.5 million masks the state Education Department plans to distribute for the fall school term — but it won’t be the driver’s responsibility to “referee” students’ mask use, Brown said. If an aide is on board, they might be tasked with enforcing the mask requirement. Signs on buses will also spell out requirements, and the Education Department is putting together training videos for drivers, parents and students.
Kurts at Lexington 1 and Weissman of Lexington-Richland 5 said any student who refuses to wear a mask cannot be left unattended at the bus stop, and the issue will be dealt with once the child arrives at school.
Some bus drivers who spoke to The State are concerned about exposure with children on the bus.
“The parents are supposed to decide if their kids are too sick to go to school, but I’ve had kids tell me, ‘I threw up at home this morning, but mom said it would be OK,’” said one bus driver, who asked to remain anonymous.
Garris said it’s not realistic to leave drivers powerless to enforce a mask requirement on buses.
“If it’s a part of discipline, that is their responsibility,” she said. “If anything, there needs to be an aide on each bus, but the district is not going to fund that. We’re already seeing a shortage of bus drivers.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if ‘Susie’ got on the bus wearing a Princess mask but left wearing a Peppa Pig mask,” Garris said. “They share hats, jackets and lice. The school bus is the perfect breeding ground for germs.”
In Kershaw County, Superintendent Shane Robbins told WIS-TV the district will use CARES Act money to hire aides to staff buses, enforcing social distancing guidelines and doing temperature checks.
Lexington 1 will be providing drivers with at least five reusable masks and a face shield, but a spokesperson said 10 drivers had resigned due to health concerns about working during the pandemic, and substitute drivers will have to work their routes this fall. Other drivers in Richland 2 have also said they don’t plan to return to work in the fall, Roof said.
“If we are unable to be fully staffed then we will have to revise routes, which will negatively impact students getting to school on time,” Abdus-Saboor, the Richland 2 spokesperson, said.
Buses are equipped with air conditioning, but since the system just recirculates the air already inside the bus, drivers are asked to keep air vents and windows open when possible to increase fresh air intake.
Each bus will be sprayed with disinfectant twice a day, at the end of its morning and afternoon routes, and frequently touched surfaces will be wiped down with a diluted bleach solution. Kurts and Weissman said their districts will not keep hand sanitizer on its buses due to the “high flammability” of the sanitizers, but that students will be allowed to carry sanitizers of their own.
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