Douglas County families scramble to plan transportation, after district announces rolling bus cancellations

By Gabriela Vidal

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    DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colorado (KCNC) — Stress is mounting for Douglas County parents like Bobbie McDonald, as they work to fill in the gaps imposed by Douglas County School District’s rolling bus cancellations.

“This is not what you’re expecting to come across that your kids aren’t going to have bus services for seven weeks out of the school year,” said McDonald. “We’re 9 miles from my kids’ schools. So, it’s 15 to 20 minutes to get there.”

Earlier this week, the district notified parents about plans to operate on a rolling bus schedule due to a shortage of bus drivers. The impacted bus routes will be on for four weeks and then off for one week with this schedule rotating through the year. Most students will be without a bus for seven weeks of the school year.

“We know that this is not the ideal solution. We recognize that,” said Paula Hans, public information officer for the district. “We know this puts our families in a bind; However, this is an improvement over last year. Last year, our transportation families would receive a cancellation notice often day of.”

Hans says Douglas County Schools have 104 bus driver vacancies and 32 vacancies for transportation educational assistants.

One of the main driving forces behind the district’s inability to fill these roles is not being able to financially compete with other salaries being provided by surrounding school districts.

“Neighboring districts who have passed, for example, mil levy overrides, are able to pay their staff, their bus drivers and teachers a more competitive salary,” said Hans.

Starting pay for hourly CDL drivers is $22.86/hour in Douglas County. For non-CDL drivers, the pay is $18.08/hour. TEAs make $17.62/hour.

“There’s the idea out there that property taxes have skyrocketed in Douglas County, so we should be able to pay our staff more. We wish that were the case,” said Hans. “What happens when we receive more revenue from property taxes is it means the state simply contributes less. It doesn’t increase the amount of funding we receive.

The school board is hoping to change their funding challenges by voting to put a $66 million mil levy override on the November 2023 ballot, in addition to a $484 bond. Both would help support creating more competitive staff pay and fund the creation of new school facilities to accommodate the growing county.

Yet, the immediate solution to addressing the bus driver shortage in the district is forcing families to make tough decisions.

“I talk to single moms who are working and need to work to support their children, and literally have no idea,” said McDonald. “I’ve seen online forums say, ‘I think I’m going to have to keep my kids home on those weeks because I literally have no options.'”

McDonald says she has managed to find some solutions to get her two kids to schools during those weeks without bus services. Yet, she wishes families would have been notified earlier this summer about the potential challenges they would face this year.

The district responded to this by say that they were hopeful they could fill more positions and wanted to collect feedback from transportation staff and families before announcing the rolling bus cancelations.

“There’s been nothing done from a district perspective to say, ‘kids can come to school earlier, kids can stay at school later,'” she said. “It just feels like a crisis time. We’ve got to get the kids there or find a way to get them the schooling solutions online like we did during the pandemic. None of those solutions are being talked about. I think that’s the concern.”

The district tells CBS News Colorado families should contact their child’s school for further guidance. As for future funding, the school board will meet on August 8 to discuss adding a mil levy override and bond to the upcoming ballot.

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