The Fox C-6 School District will ask some students to find their own way to and from school this coming school year because of a lack of bus drivers.
In a letter sent to parents on Aug. 5, the district said elementary students who live within about 1 mile from their school and middle and high school students who live within about 2 miles from their schools should not expect to ride a Fox school bus.
Students who live in those “no-transportation zones” must find an alternate way to and from school, the letter said.
“Despite aggressively working to hire and retain bus drivers, we have been unable to fill all of our openings for bus drivers,” Superintendent Paul Fregeau said in the letter. “As we approach the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year, we are approximately 13 bus drivers short of being able to fully staff our bus routes from last school year.”
Fox officials said enrollment is expected to be 10,900 this school year, with about 2,150 students living in the “no-transportation zones.”
The district is expected to have about 68 full-time and part-time drivers available to handle 64 routes. Last year, Fox had about 78 full-time and part-time drivers assigned to 78 routes, said Gary Cross, director of transportation.
The district has 126 buses.
“The decision to limit bus service is not based on the district’s finances,” Fregeau said in the letter. “Fox C-6 has the budget and the school buses needed to provide transportation. We just do not have enough drivers.”
Krista Wampler, 38, of Barnhart said she is not sure how her family will get her older son home from school. The 13-year-old will be in eighth grade at Antonia Middle School.
Because her home is more than a mile away from Antonia Elementary School, her younger son, who is 10 and entering fifth grade, will still be able to ride the bus.
“Myself and my husband both work, so we can get him there in the morning, but we aren’t home in the afternoon, so we rely on bus transportation to bring him home in the afternoon,” Wampler said. “Antonia Middle School faces Hwy. M, and that is not a road I want my son crossing every day.
“It is very disappointing that the school administrators put this out two weeks before (school starts), and they are not providing any alternate solutions. There are not before- and after-programs for middle school. I am not happy with how this was laid out for parents.”
Fox’s bus service reduction mirrors policies in place by some St. Louis County school districts, including Rockwood, Lindbergh and Parkway.
“This is the unfortunate reality we are facing, along with many school districts in our area and across the country,” Fregeau said in the letter.
At the Fox C-6 Board of Education meeting Aug. 2, Cross said the “no-transportation zones” are a general guideline. He said students who live in those zones may still receive transportation if the majority of their neighborhood is outside the zone.
“We are doing our best to not divide a subdivision in half, where half of it goes and half of it doesn’t get transportation,” he said.
Cross also told board members, who recently approved an increase in starting pay for bus drivers to $16.80 per hour, about other factors that make it difficult to fill the driver’s seat in buses.
“The process has been slowed down a lot,” he said. “There are a lot of background checks, and the federal government increased the hours of training to 50 hours. It is about a three- to four-week process to train drivers after they pass background checks and physicals.
“It is about a 30-day wait to be tested because the Missouri State Highway Patrol is having staffing issues as well,” Cross said.
Along with increasing pay to attract and retain bus drivers, Fox is offering employees who recruit candidates each up to $1,000 if the new hire works for the entire 2022-2023 school year.
Fox also held a bus driver recruitment event on July 20 at the Fox C-6 Service Center in Arnold, and Fregeau said the district hopes to hold another event.
Cross said about 25 people attended the July event and six people showed interest in becoming drivers.
“Some of those are only interested in part-time, which we are short on, too,” he said.
Cross also told the board if the district is able to hire drivers during the school year, it will add routes – but only if there are enough bus drivers to cover for absences throughout the school year.
“I don’t anticipate a one-for-one ratio,” Cross said. “I don’t want to get two drivers, put two bus drivers on (routes), but then one of them gets sick or quits and have to pull someone back off a route. I want to get three drivers and add two routes, or get five drivers and add three or four. I want a buffer. There is nothing more frustrating for a parent to not have something, then have it and then not have it. I want to be consistent and fair with the buses.”
Fox officials also announced that the start and end times for Fox and Rockport Heights elementary schools, both in Arnold, will change this school year.
The two schools will start at 8 a.m. and dismiss at 3 p.m. this school year, which is scheduled to begin Aug. 24.