School districts face teacher, bus driver shortages ahead of new school year

JESSAMINE COUNTY, Ky (WTVQ)- It’s an exciting time for schools across the Commonwealth as the first day of the new year is drawing near. Some have already welcomed students into classrooms.

“Everybody shows up and we get to see all the exciting faces coming in to our buildings,” says Matt Moore, the superintendent of Jessamine County Schools.

Each year, districts work to hire and train employees during the summer. But, some are still facing teacher shortages.

“Jessamine County right now has 14 open teacher positions and we’re actively in the process of filling those positions,” says Moore.

According to the Kentucky Department of Education, shortages across the board are getting worse and worse. Most are due to attrition.

Districts are also in desperate need of bus drivers. Some districts in Kentucky are having to cancel bus routes because there simply aren’t enough drivers. The KDE says some districts are missing one or two drivers, which can mean 50 percent of their routes aren’t covered. Some drivers run can run two or three bus routes, carrying dozens of more students.

Jessamine County Schools Director of Transportation Matthew Simpson says currently the district has about three bus driver openings. He says they’re training for those positions. Simpson says he’d still like to hire more drivers, including substitutes, since retirements and emergencies happen.

“We are always committed to running every single route. We’ve always maintained that even if we’re late, even we’re showing up to school a few minutes late, we’re going to run every single route. That may mean that a busy is coming and dropping off a set of kids, going out and getting another set of kids. We’ve always committed to running every single route. So far we’ve been able to do that and be successful,” says Simpson.

Simpson says the pay for bus drivers is $20.50 per hour. With drivers only working around 4 hours a day, the district is working to combine positions so that drivers who are in need of more money can work more hours.

“Having folks that are interested in a full 8 hours possibly doing things in custodial or food service as well as driving a bus. So there are opportunities available like that,” says Simpson.

Jessamine County Schools start Tuesday.

The Kentucky Department of Education says even if you can only drive during the mornings or afternoons, that is still a big help to schools.

You can find links to apply for positions in Jessamine County here.
For a description of bus driver openings around Kentucky, click here.

According to the KDE, this is a list of the positions with the highest number of openings across the state.