NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — There’s a question that parents across Hampton Roads seem to be asking a lot more this year, where is the bus?
School divisions still are seeing an increase in bus driver shortages.
A spokeswoman for Newport News Public Schools said they had more than 40 drivers call out this past Friday.
“I mean we are all burnt out,” said Newport News bus driver Robert Jones. “Whatever they want to do to help us out, but I do know it takes time.”
Jones said he picked up three extra routes on Friday.
“I did five in the morning and then 3 in the afternoon, plus a field trip,” Jones said.
A spokeswoman for the school division said many of its drivers did double-backs that day.
Some parents in a Facebook group said their children got home 45 minutes to an hour late.
“If we are home waiting for him and he is not home for an hour, it’s like, where is my child,” parent Chelsea Daneault asked.
Daneault got an alert about the bus delay Friday afternoon. She said the message asked parents to pick up students, if possible.
“I just had foot surgery and my husband is military, he’s out of state,” Daneault said. “So, for me, driving is kind of rough.”
Division leaders are still trying to work around 95 bus driver vacancies. On Monday officials said they had 33 call-outs.
Most school divisions in Hampton Roads are facing similar challenges.
In Virginia Beach, school officials said they have about 100 vacancies. Chesapeake reports 131 vacancies and Norfolk has more than 100. Portsmouth Public School officials said they have 33 vacancies, Hampton has 11 and Suffolk has 10.
The vacancies aren’t stopping Jones from getting behind the wheel.
“I love my job, I love what I do,” Jones said.
He started driving routes for special needs students a few months ago and said the benefits outweigh shortage pressures.
“I would say, do it for the kids,” Jones said. “You do get rewards. And then the kids that we don’t get a chance to talk to, or don’t talk to at all, you start to see those stories when they open up.”