Lower Pioneer Valley Collaborative’s Executive Director Alvin Morton answers questions from parents and the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School Committee about chronic school bus delays.
Photo Credit: Wilbraham Public Access Television
WILBRAHAM — Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District families upset with the tardiness of buses will have to wait until the start of the 2025-2026 school year before a permanent fix is in place. In the meantime, transportation provider Lower Pioneer Valley Collaborative’s Executive Director Alvin Morton was on hand to answer questions at the Jan. 9 School Committee meeting.
Parents spoke about anxious children worried about missing class and after-school activities and about them being late for work because they had to drive their children to school when the bus did not come on time. One parent said that she understood the district was considering changing the busing structure. “Great,” she said, “but what are we doing now? What are we doing today?”
Morton said, “I want to extend an apology to the students, the parents and the district for the inconveniences and difficulties that the transportation delays [have] caused. It’s not purposefully done. It’s not intentionally done. It’s just something that’s happening right now.”
The delays, which have been ongoing since the start of the school year, are due to a shortage of bus drivers, Morton said. The district has a two-tier structure with 33 regular transportation routes, requiring 33 drivers. Another 10.92 drivers are required for the specialized routes. There are also three spare drivers and 10 bus monitors. Nine of the regular route positions are unfilled, as are three specialized route positions, all three spare drive positions and two bus monitor roles. The district has no substitute drivers, which makes it more difficult to cover routes if a driver calls out sick.
Because of the driver shortage and the scramble to pick up students from multiple routes, the buses are running between 10 and 55 minutes late to drop children off at school and bring them home in the afternoon. There have been 29 days that buses have arrived late at school in the morning and 69 days they have been late dropping off students. So far this year, Superintendent John Provost said the district has made more than 400 late bus calls to families.
One reason it is difficult to fill driver positions in the district is because it offers relatively few hours, 29 in an average week. Of the seven districts in the collaborative, West Springfield and Agawam offer an average of 36 hours per week on a four-tier system, meaning the buses drive routes four times to pick up different waves of students. On a three-tier system, East Longmeadow and Ludlow offer 32 hours on average and Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District offers an average of 35 hours. Only Longmeadow, also on a two-tier system, offers fewer hours to drivers than HWRSD.
Morton recommended the district move to a three-tier system, which would bring the number of regular transportation buses and drivers down to 28. The average weekly hours for drivers would increase to 34. The two-tier system costs HWRSD $3.45 million this year. Morton said the reduction in the number of buses and drivers under a three-tier system would result in savings of more than $322,000.
The change will mean that school start and stop times will change. Morton presented a potential schedule for the changes that would see Minnechaug Regional High School begin and end 10 minutes earlier. Wilbraham Middle School would start 10 minutes later and the elementary schools would start 15-20 minutes later. Both would end 25 minutes later. Morton said the collaborative could adjust the schedule according to district’s needs. He did not expect students’ time on the bus to be any longer than it is now.
School Commitee member Tim Collins asked if there was any data on the tardiness of three-tier bus systems. Morton told him he would provide that information, but said, “I will guarantee the fact that, if you go to a three-tier system, it will not be the same problems and situations you currently have with the two-tier system.”
Morton suggested not implementing the new schedule until the start of the 2025-26 school year because a large amount of communication would be required to get everyone on the same page mid-year. Provost said he doubted whether teachers would be able to make such a shift, as many of them have childcare they would need to arrange.
In the meantime, Morton assured that LPVEC is attacking the shortage from several directions. Everyone with a CDL license, from mechanics to the general manager, is driving a bus, he said. LPVEC is offering drivers monetary incentives to pick up routes and not call out sick. The collaborative is working with the Valley Opportunity Council to reach out to unhoused people and migrants living in hotels and in Chicopee and West Springfield, and with the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department to see if retired correctional workers are interested in driving.
The collaborative hired a bilingual trainer for Spanish speaking drivers. LPVEC put a total of 72,000 flyers advertising driver and monitor positions inside the doors of residents in more than 21 communities, in newspapers, at the unemployment office, area colleges, AAA, FedEx and UPS.
Two months of this recruitment blitz led to 19 new drivers and 11 monitors. One driver has completed their training, the remainder are in different stages of onboarding, training and CDL licensure. Between the new hires and a three-tier system, Morton said, “The quality of the service [will be] better than what it is now. It has to be.”
School Commitee member Sean Kennedy suggested that the district wait to see if the collaborative continues to attract new drivers, but Provost pointed out that the rest of the districts need to know relatively soon what HWRSD is going to do because it will affect their assessments. Tirabassi also pointed out that LPVEC seems to lose more drivers each year than it hires. He said it would be “overly and duly optimistic” to assume the new hires will solve the issue. Morton confirmed this when he said that 50% of hires do not complete their CDL licensure, in part because they are only paid after the training is complete.
A resident expressed concern about making sure the buses are driven by qualified people, rather than “bodies” to fill the seat. Morton said drivers are CORI checked and randomly drug tested.
School Commitee Chair Michal Boudreau asked about how efficient the routes were and floated the idea of communal bus stops. Morton confirmed that safe group bus stops would increase efficiency and reduce delays. Provost asked him to provide some information on the feasibility of that change and potential locations for bus stops. Tirabassi said it would be even more important for buses to be on time because children would be out in the elements waiting, rather than inside their front door.
Morton also said the district could use an “opt-out” system for people whose children rarely or never take the bus, further limiting unnecessary stops. Assistant Superintendent for Operations, Finance and Human Resources Douglas Slaughter cautioned that regional transportation reimbursement from the state is predicated on the district providing transportation to 75% of its students.
The School Committee unanimously voted to switch to a three-tier system in the fall.
