Friday, September 18, 2009
Metro columnist Dan Casey: Bus company turns to parents as recruiting tool
Dan Casey is The Roanoke Times' metro columnist.
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Toniekia Poole got a surprise Tuesday afternoon as she tried to find out why her fifth-grade daughter's school bus was two hours late.
The Northwest Roanoke mom called Mountain Valley Transportation, the private contractor that now ferries Roanoke schoolchildren.
The Mountain Valley employee on the other end asked if she knew anyone who wanted a job -- as a bus driver.
"The lady told me, 'To tell you the truth we're really, really, really short staffed. The bus driver had to do a double run today,' " Poole said.
"She even proceeded to tell me because of the shortage they were in desperate need of drivers and asked if I knew anyone that needed a job."
India Bryson, who lives in Northeast Roanoke, said the same thing happened when she called. Her 5-year-old daughter was more than 90 minutes late getting home Tuesday.
"I called Mountain Valley, and Amy told me the same thing, that my daughter's bus driver had to run a double route," Bryson said.
"I asked her if I could be notified if the bus was going to be this late again. Amy told me to call them every day to find out if this bus route was going to be altered.
"So when I told her that I may not be able to do that every day, she suggested that I call my friends, and ask them if they're looking for a job, because they're short on bus drivers and maybe that would help alleviate the problem."
This method of job recruiting does not inspire confidence in Mountain Valley, the company Roanoke City Public Schools hired earlier this year to run the buses for some 13,000 Roanoke students.
Since the school year began, calls and e-mails have poured into this newsroom from parents, ex-bus drivers and others.
They have claimed, variously, that the bus company was short dozens of drivers when the school year began; that more drivers have resigned since schools started; of buses jammed with students sitting three and four to a seat; and that, even with redistricting to "neighborhood schools," kids are getting on the bus earlier and arriving at school later.
That is the unconfirmed buzz anyway.
When it was operated by Roanoke City Public Schools, the bus system had 130 "regular" drivers in 2007 and roughly that number in February this year. Those are numbers I pulled from stories in this newspaper.
Curt Baker, deputy superintendent of the schools, put the number at 132 drivers by the end of last school year.
He told me Tuesday that the rerouting the school system did over last weekend is finally beginning to take hold and that the school system is seeing "positive strides."
Some additional fine tuning of buses and routes is still necessary, he said.
"What is different is we're running more routes. And that's causing stress in the system," Baker said.
To be fair, both Poole's and Bryson's daughters attend school outside their home district. They are among a much higher-than-expected number of out-of-district students who have caused much of that stress.
But what's still unclear is whether Mountain Valley has enough bus drivers to run its routes. Or even how many it had on the first day of school.
Baker did not know the answer to the latter question when I asked him Tuesday. He said he expected the number would be about 132.
Getting answers from Mountain Valley Transportation is anything but easy. When you call, as I have three times this week, you get put on hold. For a long time.
Sometimes, a person comes back on the line only to ask you to hold again.
And when you finally are able to leave a message for regional manager Sue Kramer, you may be out of luck. She didn't return my calls Friday or Tuesday. However, General Manager Andre Harris called me Wednesday evening. He said the company is not short of drivers.
Here are some other questions I asked him:
How many bus drivers (not mechanics and staff) did Mountain Valley employ on the first day of school? Harris couldn't give me a number.
How many bus drivers (not mechanics and staff) does Mountain Valley employ today? Harris couldn't give a number.
There was one final question that Harris said he couldn't address.
If the bus system is not short of drivers, why is Mountain Valley recruiting through worried parents?
