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Bowling Green Schools hopes to attract more bus drivers, return to 1-mile radius for students by January

Bowling Green City Schools Supt. Francis Scruci said training and certification for bus drivers can take up to six months to complete.

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — Bowling Green City Schools hopes to once again offer bussing to students more than one mile from the school, but less than two miles, "optimistically by January," Superintendent Francis Scruci said.

In an email to parents of students on Tuesday, Scruci said more bus drivers are needed to meet this goal. A shortage of drivers employed by the district -- they currently have 11 full-time -- caused them to have to increase the radius in which students are not offered bussing to school.

This change brought the previous 20 routes down to 14.

He said the training and certification to become a bus driver "is not a quick or easy process and can take as many as six months to complete."

Scruci said families will be notified if they are eligible for transportation.

At a July 19 BGCS Board of Education, Transportation Director Toby Snow recommended the two-mile radius due to the shortage, which the district accepted, Scruci said.

"This was an extremely difficult decision but one that left the district with no options. We also understood that this may cause some inconvenience and hardships for our families but without qualified drivers we have no option," he said.

BGCS raised the bus drivers' hourly wage by $3 to attract more drivers. They also hope to get more drivers through the commercial driver's license process by January.

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