Once Short-Staffed, Fort Worth ISD Overcomes Bus Driver Shortage

Finding drivers has been one of the biggest challenges for school districts. Many have already felt the burn of staffing shortages in the first week of school.

Last school year, the ongoing bus driver shortage that is plaguing the country hit Fort Worth ISD hard.

Just months ago in April, they were looking to fill 100 positions. They were so short-staffed that as many as 40 routes didn’t even have a driver.

But the district said this year they’re in much better shape.

“We're in a much better position than we were a year ago, in that we have enough people to be able to keep things covered,” said Dr. Joseph Coburn, chief of district operations for the Fort Worth ISD.

Coburn said his team has spent the summer hiring new drivers and completely revamping their bus routes. He said they’re in such good shape, that buses should run on time this week for the first few days of school.

“Our drivers have been amazing. They are the first people kids see every day and they're the last people students see every day when they get off of the bus. And what we've asked them to do, they just keep stepping up, they just keep doing great work,” he said. “So we were pleased – we were able to increase their compensation this year. We increased their compensation last year. They earn every penny, they're still valuable. And so they're doing a lot and they get all the credit for the improvements that we have.”

Currently, they are looking to hire about 30 bus drivers for a “reserve force” to help out with field trips and ease the strain on the schedule if drivers get sick, call out, or take time off.

“More importantly, we knew that we had to change the way we did business. And so we've made some changes to allow ourselves to be more efficient, and be able to do more with the fleet that we have,” he said. “We absolutely still need more drivers to keep our fleet strong and to make sure we can remain as reliable as we want to be.”

In the last two years of the pandemic, the district lost about a quarter of its drivers. They’ve been trying to build that back ever since.

It reached a point where students were waiting for long periods before and after school, with not enough drivers to cover sick calls and absences.

“The challenges a year ago – in our best case scenario, we were going to have uncovered bus routes every day. Which meant no matter what we did, no matter how hard we tried, there were going to be students whose buses were going to be very late every day,” said Coburn.

In addition to hiring more drivers, Coburn said the biggest part of fixing the issues they saw last year was making their bus routes more efficient than they ever were.

“We literally stripped it down to the studs and said, how can we redo this entire thing to make sure what people need more than anything is reliable transportation? They need to know that a bus is going to be there every day,” he said. “Students want to know that they're going to see the same driver every day, just like they want to see the same teacher every day. We spent a lot of time and energy looking for those efficiencies.”

He explained that every district – especially large ones like FWISD – is pulling off a gargantuan effort to get students to school by bus.

“When you're running over 250 buses every day and transporting over 70,000 students every day, the margins are very small to keep the trains running on time,” he said. “And traffic is unpredictable. There are so many things – weather is unpredictable. So we have a team of people here, it's like a symphony in place every single day. How are we identifying a problem? How are we getting in front of it?”

It takes more than just drivers. There are dispatchers and route supervisors in the operations center who build the routes, keep them staffed, communicate with drivers, and handle where hundreds of drivers and attendants will be throughout the school year.

Coburn said like so many other industries, schools are competing for talent in the workforce — whether it be teachers or drivers.

“Labor markets have just changed. I think school districts, every industry, we're just trying to adapt. We're trying to stay ahead of change,” he said. “We're trying to make sure that we're as desirable a place for anyone to come work as we possibly can be. And we're working really hard to do that every single day.”

Latisha Williams said it takes a certain type of person like herself to handle her job.

“It's a tough job. But somebody's got to do it,” she said.

She’s been working on a bus — either as an attendant or a driver — for the past six years for FWISD. Currently, she works specifically with special needs children.

 “Actually, I feel like all kids have a special need, even if they're not a special needs student. So that's why I love working here because I get to work with kids,” she said.

Williams said her job is like family. In fact, her own mother is a bus driver.

Over the last two years, Williams has leaned on that family. And despite the driver shortages and overtime hours, she said everything she does is for the kids.

“These buses may look hard to drive but that’s the easy part,” she said. “I get my motivation from our veterans that have been here more than 47 years, we have quite a few of them.”

While bus driver shortages are continuing to put a strain on districts across north Texas, some are offering big bucks to bring on more drivers.

Fort Worth ISD has taken things up a notch to get bus drivers, becoming one of the highest-paying districts in DFW.

Starting pay for bus drivers increased from $18.40 to $22 per hour, with opportunities to make up to $26.97 an hour. New hires are eligible for a $1,000 sign-on bonus.

There's also a ‘Welcome Home’ bonus of $500 if you’re a former Fort Worth ISD graduate.

Bus attendants now get $13 an hour and are eligible for all the same bonuses.

• Click here to apply to be a bus driver in Fort Worth ISD
• Here's a link to the district's careers site

“I think the challenge is, in a market where people can do so many things, how do we help them understand the experience of driving a bus?” said Coburn. “The connections you get to make with students every day and the difference that you get to make is hopefully what will drive them to want to come here and drive a bus for Fort Worth ISD.”