JAMM AQUINO / 2022 The Department of Education is facing criticism about its handling of school buses for the current school year. A city bus passes a parked school bus outside Kaimuki High School.
JAMM AQUINO / 2022 The Department of Education is facing criticism about its handling of school buses for the current school year. A city bus passes a parked school bus outside Kaimuki High School.
The chair of the House Education Committee wants the Department of Education to explain when it realized that 3, 686 students who rely on bus service would have to scramble to find other ways to get to school across three islands, beginning this week.
“What happened there ?” Rep. Justin Woodson (D, Kahului-Puunene ) asked Monday. “There wasn’t sufficient notice to let everyone know what was going to happen so parents and guardians could make salient preparations. I’m hearing a lot of frustration.”
Woodson hopes to hold a briefing with the DOE on the bus situation later this week or next.
There is no timetable on when students and their families can expect bus serv ice to resume.
Kapolei-based Ground Transport Inc. was awarded the DOE contract for the first time this year to provide bus service for the four school complexes that are being affected by a shortage of drivers with special commercial driver’s licenses in Central Oahu, East Hawaii island and Central and Upcountry Maui, DOE spokesperson Nanea Ching said.
The DOE notified families that they would not have bus service “last week when the (driver shortage ) numbers for the contractor in Central Oahu, East Hawaii island and on Maui were not looking so solid. So the department chose to temporarily suspend those routes to give families a little bit of time, rather than leave them in limbo and hope that the numbers would firm up in the next few days.”
But Ground Transport had been in constant communication with the DOE that it did not have enough drivers, company spokesperson Donalyn Dela Cruz said.
“Ground Transport has been in touch with the Department of Education, ” Dela Cruz said. “This is not a new issue. There have been meetings that have been ongoing. Ground Transport is not responsible for informing parents or students.”
On Friday, Gov. Josh Green issued a second emergency proclamation to help fill the absence of drivers by allowing companies with smaller buses or vans to use drivers without the higher standard of commercial driver’s licenses to transport children.
Green issued his initial emergency proclamation a year ago when DOE contractors faced a similar shortage of drivers.
Finding enough drivers to restore routes this year will be complicated and “nuanced ” depending on which parts of each island are affected, Woodson said.
“It depends on what routes need to be re-absorbed and what island they’re on and each area they’re in, ” he said. “There are a lot of moving parts.”
The DOE hopes to first resume bus service in rural communities and to schools around military bases—especially for younger children.
Ground Transport continues to advertise and recruit new drivers, especially on the Big Island where the shortage is particularly acute, Dela Cruz said.
The lack of drivers qualified for a higher-level commercial driver’s license follows the overall need for workers with special skills in Hawaii.
It also has potential implications for the six companies that the DOE contracts with to transport 24, 000 public school students to school—or a quarter of all DOE students.
Students with special needs who rely on bus serv ice are not affected, the DOE said.
Despite pay of over $30 an hour and good benefits, Woodson said the shortage of qualified school bus drivers in Hawaii “is a nationwide challenge, as well.”
In the meantime, Woodson said families that rely on bus service for their children in Central Oahu, East Hawaii island and Central and Upcountry Maui are “legitimately concerned and frustrated ”—and letting their elected leaders in the state Legislature know about it.
At the state Capitol, Woodson said he and his House colleagues “haven’t heard of any remedies yet. We’re just getting blasted.”
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