Rockwood School District: Rockwood Transportation Announces Bus Route Changes For 2021-2022 School Year

Press release from the Rockwood School District:

May 11, 2021

​The Rockwood Transportation Department continues to experience staffing shortages, as do most school districts in our region and our state. Since the start of the school year, the district is down 31 drivers, and we have only been able to hire four replacements during that time. This summer, the department will take a fresh look at routes and establish them based on our enrollment as we typically do. We anticipate that ridership will return to pre-pandemic levels and with the continued shortage of drivers, we will need to collapse more routes and review the walking boundaries for each school. This will reduce ridership and create more efficient routes that our staffing can support. We of course will be looking at each school and whether walkers could safely access the school. A walking distance has not been established yet as we are still in the planning phase, but we want parents to be aware that we are having to move in this direction. This is not a financial decision, but one made necessary simply by the lack of drivers coupled with the increase in ridership. Please know that this is something we have been working very hard to avoid. We have taken the following steps to address the staffing shortage:

• We offer competitive pay;
• We actively market and advertise our open positions;
• We offer a $500 referral bonus for staff; 
• We offer a $1,000 sign-on bonus for hires who have a commercial driver's license.

We will be sharing more information about changes to our transportation services as we have them. We also have developed some frequently asked questions and answers on the website in the meantime to help you understand why this change is necessary.

​The Rockwood Transportation Department continues to experience staffing shortages, as do most school districts in our region and our state. Since the start of the school year, the district is down 31 drivers, and we have only been able to hire four replacements during that time. This summer, the department will take a fresh look at routes and establish them based on our enrollment as we typically do. We anticipate that ridership will return to pre-pandemic levels and with the continued shortage of drivers, we will need to collapse more routes and review the walking boundaries for each school. This will reduce ridership and create more efficient routes that our staffing can support. We of course will be looking at each school and whether walkers could safely access the school. A walking distance has not been established yet as we are still in the planning phase, but we want parents to be aware that we are having to move in this direction. This is not a financial decision, but one made necessary simply by the lack of drivers coupled with the increase in ridership. Please know that this is something we have been working very hard to avoid. We have taken the following steps to address the staffing shortage:

• We offer competitive pay;
• We actively market and advertise our open positions;
• We offer a $500 referral bonus for staff; 
• We offer a $1,000 sign-on bonus for hires who have a commercial driver's license.

We will be sharing more information about changes to our transportation services as we have them. We also have developed some frequently asked questions and answers on the website in the meantime to help you understand why this change is necessary.

This press release was produced by the Rockwood School District. The views expressed here are the author’s own.