Parents in Framingham, Massachusetts, may have to take charge as the district grapples with a shortage of school bus drivers before school starts.
At the Framingham School Committee meeting on Wednesday night, it was made abundantly clear that they are just as frustrated as the parents that they will be 20 buses short of starting the school year.
Framingham needs 77 bus drivers, but NRT Bus only has 57 for the start of the year.
The school committee discussed what was sent in a letter to parents earlier this month: that they can only guarantee bus transportation for K-6 students who live more than two miles from school.
They are working on routes now and say they will pick up other students starting with those furthest away and working inwards, but hundreds of children will be left without transportation to school.
School Committee members say they are especially frustrated, after reaching an agreement with the union on a new contract after last year’s strike, that NRT is not providing enough drivers to the district.
“It seems like every time NRT is letting us down, but we’re rewarding them with more money, and I don’t think it’s fair that they can’t even start this school year holding their contract accountable.” School committee member Jennifer Moshe said: “We’re already in default and we haven’t even started the school year, and it’s frustrating and it’s not fair to our students and it’s not fair to our families.”
“NRT Bus is successfully conducting various recruitment efforts and has increased wages to hire more bus and van drivers to serve our communities despite the current nationwide driver shortage,” the company said in a statement to NBC10 Boston earlier this week.
The district’s finance director explained at the meeting that they are working with a vendor to implement a platform that could become a way for parents to work together in a kind of giant carpool to get kids to class.
