Union Public Schools said several bus routes have been restored after a shortage in qualified bus drivers caused reduced services across the district in March.

Union Public Schools Superintendent John Federline said with seeing a slight improvement, he’s hopeful to have the issue resolved by the end of the school year.

“I think it’s indicative what a crisis it was, a few weeks ago that we had to do this. But like I said, we are going in the right direction and hope to have this back to normal very soon,” Federline said.

The district said that due to hard work in the Transportation Department, several routes will be returned to service starting on Monday.

“We’ve had some applicants come in which was nice. We’ve hired several people which takes a little while for them to be trained and make sure they pass all of our background checks and things like that. But we’ve had some success in that area. We’ve been able to add a few people, add a few drivers, and this week we were able to add some routes back in,” Federline said.

Federline said it’s not a perfect solution, but it’s a step in the right direction, as this hasn’t been the first time Union has faced this type of problem.

“We’ve been dealing with a bus crisis for the last couple of years. This is the first time to my knowledge that we’ve been a position to have to cut routes. We absolutely don’t like doing that. We take our responsibility for student transportation very seriously,” Federline said.

With the bus driver shortage, Federline has been pleasantly surprised about their absenteeism as they had a slight drop in the first week of their bus routes, the district-wide average was less than 2%, which the district is pleased with.

“We’ve had a district-wide initiative all year that’s focused on attendance. We were worried that this was going to put a dent in that, but it seems to have not done really well. We really appreciate the cooperation we’ve had from our parents,” Federline said.

As the school year is close to an end, the district is still going to work to resolve the issue so it doesn’t occur next year.

“We are looking at the possibility of outsourcing. We’re looking at different companies to help us adjust our routing. We’re looking at what software we use to plan out our routes. We’re looking at everything that relates to buses and transportation. We’re taking a look at it in order to find solutions to this issue,” Federline said.

A chart was shared with parents and guardians in the district. UPS said the buses listed will not be providing transportation services to or from school on the day listed. If the student’s bus is no longer on the chart, their transportation has been restored.

If parents and guardians have a student with a bus route on the chart, they need to continue making arrangements to get them to class for the remainder of the school year.

The district said students will not be allowed to ride a different bus on the days service is not offered.

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