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I was a software engineer 37 years.

I was not much in need of a revenue stream, but I wanted some more responsibilities because after 37 years of having job responsibilities, there was a void.

And so, I saw the school bus with the sign on it saying, now hiring an and went from there.

If you like kids, you know, this is a great supplemental job, you know, and the kids, you get to know them if you're on the same route every day, you know, you get to know their personalities and they know you and you can joke around.

And it's a lot of it can be a lot of fun, you know?

And we need the help to be honest.

You know, we need drivers that want to come in here and do this every day, even though it's a tough job and you don't work in the summer.

So that's a plus.

You know, you have your summers off.

So it's a good place to work.

(Dispatcher) “Wait a minute let that bus get out ”.

My concern about bussing right now is that there's such a lack of bus drivers, and I'm not quite sure why that is is causing a big hole in this organization, and I think anybody that comes to work is going to end up loving the people they're working with and loving the kids.

it's a great job.

Here at Meridian Public Schools, we have three schools, elementary, junior high, high school.

Then we have a preschool on the other side of the lake.

and we have a daycare that goes there as well.

we have both 880 kids on busses every day.

We have 14 K through 12 roads.

We have two special needs, three preschool, and then we have a bus that goes to Delta College and a bus that goes to a trade school in Bay city.

my responsibilities as a school bus driver is to make sure that the kids are safe and get them back and forth from school to home.

to become a school bus driver, you do have to get a specialized license.

the the school provides payments for any costs that you have for that.

you have to do a special driver's test.

You have to have training, which lasts anywhere from a month to a month and a half.

to become a driver you have to have a CDL-B you have to have airbrake for this location.

We have all air brake busses.

So you have to have the endorsement for that.

A nurse endorsement to be a school bus driver the challenge for, for covering busses here, sometimes people will move on because there's not enough hours, you know, to make a living on it.

They may not come in with the understanding that you can't make a living on this.

So we're typically short staffed.

You know, people will retire out or they'll move, or they have a spouse that's ill and they need to care for them.

So it's a constant scramble basically to get enough drivers.

We're always in need.

We have, “GPS” units on the busses now, and, with those, we're able to get, point by point, traffic instruction to get to each one of our children stops.

It tells you how far away the stop is and gradually get you there.

It tells you the names of the students.

Literally anybody could get on that bus not knowing any of the students and drive the route and, be able to even say hello, Johnny.

Hello, Sue.

Without knowing anything.

the typical schedule is you come in early, our bus drivers come in anywhere from, say, 6:00, and then the last one leaves out at seven.

You're done by 8:00 in the morning, and then we come back at 2:30. do the pre-trip and get ready to go.

And you're typically done about 430.

First thing that I have to do when I get on to the job site is, get on the bus and do a bus inspection.

you know, you got to make sure that that bus is safe.

You got to check every aspect of the bus.

to verify that it's drivable.

the relationship with the kids is is great.

I, I love every one of them.

They're wonderful children.

They, I rarely see a child that, you know, needs a, special attention and that I can't get along with.

my advice to somebody considering to be a bus driver is don't immediately think that you can't do it.

I've heard so many people, when I tell them on the bus, drivers say, I don't understand how you can do that.

And it's usually the complaint that kids are too loud.

You really?

After a while, it's just, you don't even hear it.

Really.

It's just sounds like normal volume, and they're really not that loud.

Anyway, I think people have a lot of misconstrue options.

the bus driver shortage is nationwide.

It's not just here at Meridian Public Schools.

if you're paying attention as you're driving around, you'll see school busses sitting outside of schools, like we need help with bus drivers.

That's everywhere.

There isn't a school district that I've talked to that they don't need some kind of help with bus driving.

It's just that, you know, niche that, you know, I we just need people.

As you've heard, there's a big need for school bus drivers.

If you're interested, contact your local school district through their website or give them a call.