Dolores has enough bus drivers to get students to and from school, but there isn’t anyone to spare.
“We need drivers bad,” said Annette Carrasco, a bus driver for three years.
Right now Carrasco can’t get sick or miss work, otherwise, the kids on her route won’t have a way to get to school.
The district has also been forced to combine routes to make up for the shortage, meaning some students get picked up as early as 6:30 a.m.
There are currently seven bus drivers, including Director of Transportation, Jim Davis, for the Dolores School District and no backups.
“Right now, we are very limited in what we can do for sports,” Davis said.
So far, the sports schedule has been moved around quit a bit. This week, instead of going to Monticello, the High School Volleyball players had to meet Dolores at a home game.
“Right now, we can’t go to games,” Dolores School District Superintendent Scott Cooper said.
In hopes of enticing more bus drivers to Dolores, the Dolores School Board of Education voted Tuesday night to increase the starting pay of a bus driver in Dolores by $1 to $13.17.
“That makes our bus drivers the highest paid bus drivers in the county,” Cooper said.
In addition, the district will continue to reimburse $50 toward the DOT physical and will pay for the $39.50 fingerprint costs for all District applicants.
Current drivers also were given the pay increase.
Cooper hopes that area residents will respond to the increase.
“Right now if anybody is sick or if we want to go to an away game, we are stuck,” Cooper said.
In addition, the district plans to start a training program for those that wish to learn how to drive a school bus.