WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools are changing their school start and end times starting next week. School division leaders are making the change due to the ongoing bus driver shortage.
Fred Velez is one of the newest bus driver trainees stepping in to help students get to school.
“I'm retired and I was doing some other work and I decided to do this at this time because I heard of the shortages,” said Velez.
Velez and his bus-driving classmates hit the road next week. He doesn't mind the new school start and end times.
“It's really going to help people out and parents will be happy that these buses are going to be rolling again,” he said.
Also starting next week, Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools students will have a new schedule to get to school on time.
“High school and middle school will start five minutes earlier each and dismiss earlier, and the elementary schools will actually start a few minutes later and end a little bit later by giving us more times in between those runs,” said WJCC Public Schools Chief Operating Officer Daniel Keever.
Keever said the time changes are a result of the bus driver shortage they are experiencing.
“Our staffing numbers go up and down. We are approximately 27 runs short but we feel like if we are able to hire 20 drivers, that puts us in a much better position. So we do have vacancies for 20 drivers,” said Keever.
The new schedules are from September 20 through September 30. School division leaders will decide to keep these school times if it helps students and bus drivers.
Trainee Velez said he’s ready to start working again.
“It's really going to help people out and the parents will be happy that these buses are going to be rolling again,” said Velez.
The school division has 15 bus driver candidates scheduled for training for the month of September.