With 1,103 school buses on the road every day of school, one snag can throw a wrench into the well-oiled machine.
By JAY CRIDLIN
Published May 21, 2004
PALM RIVER - The school bus usually deposits Pamela Graham's 9-year-old grandson, Timothy Mann, on Madison Avenue each day at 4:30 p.m.
Usually.
But there are days when Timothy's bus arrives 15 or 20 minutes late - say, when traffic is bad on U.S. 301, or when a train happens to cross Madison just as the bus approaches.
On those days, Graham can't help but think, What is going on?
"I wonder if they got in a bus wreck, or if the bus broke down," she says, seated in her car, waiting to pick up Timothy.
On any given school day, 1,103 Hillsborough County school buses crisscross county roads, delivering more than 90,000 students to and from schools, homes and transfer stations. The buses don't get quite as much use once school lets out, but field trips and summer school programs keep many buses busy throughout June, July and August.
They are part of Hillsborough County's 1,350-bus fleet, the 12th-largest school bus fleet in the nation. Each year, county school buses log 25-million miles.
When things run smoothly, the buses arrive and depart on schedule, morning and afternoon. For students, parents, teachers and drivers, they are a normal part of a normal day.
But when the system fails, everyone notices.
The enormity of Hillsborough's school bus system makes it impossible for district officials to ensure it will always run smoothly. Each day, bus breakdowns, maintenance tieups and, most critically, a driver shortage complicate the business of transporting students.
A tardy morning bus can force students to miss breakfast or even class. In the afternoon, late buses cause parents to worry, children to be late for after-school programs and teachers to miss faculty meetings.
"You have a domino effect," says Clara Davis, principal at Rodgers Middle School in Riverview. "We have to keep the students in; therefore, everyone is held up. Then you have major concerned parents."
The monumental task of managing this bus system - and, more important, keeping it safe and on schedule - is charged to the School District of Hillsborough County's transportation department, which has its headquarters on Harney Road in Thonotosassa.
"Our whole organization is based on efficiency," says Karen Strickland, general manager of the school district's transportation department. "If we don't get the buses in, get them serviced, and get them out, then our poor drivers are taking a spare bus. It confuses the parents, it confuses the students, it confuses the schools."
People might ask, Why is my child's bus running late?
A better question, district officials reply, might be: How do so many more buses manage to run on time?
Any number of snags
Timothy Mann rides Bus 2586. It services students in Clair Mel, Palm River and Progress Village.
At 12 years old and with nearly 200,000 miles, Bus 2586 is one of the oldest in the fleet. It's a Ford, and Ford no longer makes school buses. There are 69 of these left in the fleet; within a few years, they will all have been replaced.
Bus 2586 is a magnet school bus, meaning its passengers are dropped off each morning at Tampa Bay Technical High School, where they transfer to another bus. The students who then board Bus 2586 are taken to Young Middle School in Tampa. In the afternoon, the process is reversed.
This schedule, like all others in Hillsborough County, was set last summer using data from the previous year's student roster. The county's 16 route coordinators test each route by personally driving it.
After a few weeks, a driver may realize that it's physically impossible to meet the schedule. He or she may encounter the same train at the same crossing every day.
Other issues pop up. Every day in the transportation department's radio room, dispatchers monitor hundreds of buses and note each call for service.
One driver is sick and needs a replacement. Another has witnessed a fight. Number 3822 is broken down. Number 2436 has a low tire. Number 2789 needs a new mirror.
The most persistent problem, Strickland says, is a shortage of drivers. The school district has a driver assigned to each bus route, as well as about 75 substitute drivers. If a permanent driver calls in sick or takes a day off, the district calls a substitute.
The current substitute roster gets a lot of work - so much so, in fact, that there aren't enough drivers to fill in when a substitute is sick. If there are not enough substitutes, drivers must double up and drive more than one route.
"Those are things that are part of the system," Strickland says. "It's not something we like, but we don't have a pool of drivers to fall back on."
Strickland would like to have about 110 substitute drivers to give the district some breathing room. But a delicate balance exists. If there are too many substitutes, it reduces the number of opportunities for each substitute driver. If substitutes don't get to work, they quit.
"They've got to live, too," Strickland says.
Hillsborough's school district has grown faster than its bus driver roster. Other counties in Florida, Strickland says, have had the same problem.
"Just take a look at the number of schools we've built within the last five years," she says. "That's a lot of new kids coming into the district. When you have those numbers coming in on an annual basis, it's hard to keep up."
How will the district recruit new drivers? Strickland isn't sure. Depending on experience, a bus driver can earn between $9.02 and $17.59 per hour, for an eight-hour day, during the school year. Strickland said the state is unlikely to further boost salaries.
The answer may simply be time. Over the next five years, Strickland expects the rapid school growth to level off. When it does, she thinks the number of drivers will catch up.
Routine checkups
The state requires school buses to be thoroughly inspected every 30 days. Hillsborough County inspects its buses every 28 days just to be safe.
The inspections normally take an hour, and the buses can be back on the road, on one of 1,103 routes, that afternoon. If the problem is serious, the county substitutes one of about 250 backup buses.
It is not an ideal setup, Strickland says, since using spare buses can confuse parents, teachers and students who are trained to remember a particular bus number. But safety comes first.
Bus drivers are encouraged to stop for seemingly minor problems, such as a broken windshield wiper or rear defroster. That can be difficult for automobile drivers to understand, Strickland says, especially those who put off auto tuneups for several weeks.
"A car is entirely different from a bus," she said. "When you're in a bus, if you hear that funny noise, do you want to take a chance at blowing a $6,000 engine? No."
The district has about 16 service trucks that can assist broken-down buses. Sometimes, a mechanic can fix the problem. Other times, the mechanic assures the driver that it's safe to continue. If worse comes to worst, the district sends another bus to pick up the children and continue the route, while the first is towed back to the shop.
Still, that the bus is technically and mechanically sound does not guarantee it will always hit its stops.
Minor problems such as a dawdling student, a sick bus driver or a broken taillight can affect the stop schedules around the county.
"I think everyone experiences some frustration from time to time," says Mann Middle School principal Nancy Trathowen. "When they come late, it impacts learning because they're missing class time."
This summer, the district will implement a new computer routing program that incorporates past passenger lists to determine which students might ride a given bus, and where each student lives. Every time a new student registers, his or her information is entered into the program. Drivers, Strickland says, will have a better guess on the first day of school which students they'll carry.
In the meantime, drivers try to compensate for lost time by calling other drivers on the radio for help picking up students, or taking a shortcut, or picking up children out of the normal order.
The first priority, after all, is transporting children.
For the most part, individual school officials accept that late buses are a part of life.
"It's not perfect," Trathowen says. "No one in transportation says, "We want to make this school upset by not sending a bus.' It is strictly something that occurs. We all have to make adjustments."
The Hillsborough County school district is constantly looking for drivers to fill permanent or substitute positions.
Potential drivers must apply in person. Applications are available from the district's Transportation Department at 9455 Harney Road in Thonotosassa. Applicants must have at least a 10th-grade education or equivalent, and at least five years' driving experience with no more than 13 lifetime points on their license. Significant criminal histories and DUIs will not be tolerated.
Applicants must also obtain a valid Commercial Drivers License Phase 1 Class B permit, available from any drivers license office. Further training is required later.
Drivers must park Hillsborough County school buses within county limits, except by special permission, and maintain a working telephone number. The cost to apply is $45 for a physical and $60 to $69 for fingerprinting. Pay starts at $9.02 per hour for both permanent and substitute drivers.
For information, call 982-5500.
PARENTS: Do you have questions about your child's bus route? Student roster lists and bus routes are available from individual schools. Call your child's school for information about a specific bus route; call the transportation department with any further questions at 982-5500.
