Youngstown City School District will no longer be providing buses for high school students due to challenges finding bus drivers in a move approved by the board of education at its meeting on Tuesday.
The district in a press release said high school students will either need to use public transit or find other ways to get to school. Buses will still be provided for students from kindergarten to eighth grade and for high school students with disabilities. Other big school districts in Northeast Ohio like Cleveland and Akron don’t provide school bus transportation for high schoolers but do give them free bus passes for local public transit authorities.
“This is news that we did not want to deliver,” Youngstown Superintendent Jeremy Batchelor said in the release. “The administration and board of education have been conversing about the most efficient course of action. With careful consideration, the decision was made to stop transportation for high school students for the foreseeable future and offer the WRTA (Western Reserve Transit Authority) as an option, which is a free mode of transit for all riders. The district is working closely with the WRTA to ensure families are kept informed throughout this transition. YCSD also wants to emphasize that no driver has lost employment because of the changes.”
The district is facing a $2 million "withholding penalty due to noncompliance" with the Ohio Department of Education, which the district said in the release stems from the bus driver shortage.
“YCSD is legally responsible for transporting all eligible students to the district, community, or chartered nonpublic schools where they are enrolled. With 14 buildings in the district and 36 transporting vehicles in total, it has its challenges,” Batchelor said in the release. “The district sincerely appreciates all of our families and extended families in other charter and nonpublic schools. We thank you for your cooperation and continued support.”
Other districts across the country have been grappling in recent years with challenges finding enough bus drivers, a problem driven in part by low wages for the profession, according to research from the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.
Youngstown said it will offer updates in the coming week and will seek proposals from "third-party providers" for additional help with transportation.
