<body><div>Laurens, South Carolina – About 1:15 p.m. Monday afternoon, Laurens County School District 55 parents were alerted that school would run on a regular schedule on Tuesday rather than a repeat of Monday’s e-learning day, which was announced Friday afternoon due to the district’s ongoing bus transportation challenges.The decision to spend a day in e-learning<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3ApT9g_1H1YqpQo00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3ApT9g_1H1YqpQo00" width="580" height="548" ></figure>was in part related to a round of sickness which was impacting teachers, district staff and bus drivers, often causing absences of several days. The district’s pool of bus drivers, which was already depleted due to staffing changes caused by budget decisions, was hit especially hard.“We have had an exceptionally large number of teachers and staff out of schools in the last week, including bus drivers,” said Interim Superintendent Rhett Harris. “But this is still more weighted on the shortage (of drivers) because we didn’t know if we could cover the routes.”A few employees certified to drive will be brought back into the transportation staff, and a few other certified drivers have come forward but still need required training and background checks, Harris said.The hiring process for someone “coming off the street” without certification or prior district employment will take a while, Harris said, adding that employment with the school district includes background checks, online classroom and driver training overseen by a qualified District 55 Transportation Department employee.The district employees with certification who have not been driving recently can begin right away, he said, which should help. In the meantime, Harris has heard that more parents who have the option are driving their children to and from school, which he said is understandable.The district educates about 5,000 children and 3,800 of them are bus riders and getting them all to and from school safely is the utmost priority, Harris said. But the availability of fewer qualified drivers have meant doubling up on routes resulting in even longer times waiting for or riding on buses.“We don’t want kids to have to ride very long routes and we want to get back to normal as quickly as possible,” Harris said. “They really shouldn’t be on the bus more than 90 minutes, and that’s according to state law. We want to stay within the confines of that regulation and the staff is trying to determine how to decrease those times.”The significance of the issue of delayed buses has fluctuated but has been present much of this fall semester. Two weeks ago, the district was already struggling to meet the route needs of all bus-riding students when the District 55 Board of Trustees gave final approval to it’s dual employment policy, asked employees to select only one part-time position – either bus driver or other support staff – and holding employment hours to 7.5 hours a day or 37.5 hours per week.At the time, Harris said some drivers had already left, and he was concerned more would follow.“We had 52 drivers, and with the dual employment policy (change) we lost six, so we are having to start earlier and go later (to complete routes),” Harris said. “We have been in a bad spot the last several days, but we also have a lot of transportation people who have really stepped up. It’s been roughest on parents and children, and I want to get back to normal as soon as we can.”The district’s transportation director position is also now open, and the district has posted that opening to job boards.“We have several buses running longer routes, but we want to stay within the confines of the law,” Harris said. “If it’s one bus running late, it’s too many, and if there’s even one student riding too long, then we need to do better than that.”This update story ran on Page 1 of the Wednesday, Nov. 11 issue of The Laurens County Advertiser.</div></body>

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Laurens, South Carolina – About 1:15 p.m. Monday afternoon, Laurens County School District 55 parents were alerted that school would run on a regular schedule on Tuesday rather than a repeat of Monday’s e-learning day, which was announced Friday afternoon due to the district’s ongoing bus transportation challenges.

Breakdown: School District 55 bus woes take turn

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Laurens, South Carolina – About 1:15 p.m. Monday afternoon, Laurens County School District 55 parents were alerted that school would run on a regular sched

Breakdown: School District 55 bus woes take turn

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