Bus driver shortage creates pickup delays for Ellington Public Schools, CT, students
By ROB POLANSKY, AYAH GALAL
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ELLINGTON, Connecticut (WFSB) — Students and their parents in Ellington were told to expect school bus delays on Monday morning.
Ellington Public Schools messaged them to warn them that the district had a number of bus routes that did not have drivers.
“First Student is working on splitting routes onto other buses,” said Brian Greenleaf, director of finance operations. “Please expect widespread delays for the morning routes.”
Greenleaf said First Student was working to ensure full coverage of all of the routes in town.
Some parents said they decided to directly drop their children off at school instead of wait for the bus.
“Obviously the town was doing the best they could, but I just made the determination to drive them to school [Monday] morning so they wouldn’t be outside waiting,” said Carolina Braga of Ellington.
Braga said she had to do drop offs at Crystal Lake Elementary School.
“It was easy enough,” she said. “Thank God I have a flexible schedule and I just figured it was easier, but I know I’m sure that there were parents that were impacted a lot more severely if they were trying to rush somewhere.”
“We apologize for any inconvenience,” Greenleaf said.
First Group blamed it on a nationwide problem.
“Depending on daily staffing levels, we are having to adjust some bus routes for Ellington Public Schools, which is what happened [Monday],” said Jen Biddinger, corporate communications manager, First Group. “While this can cause delays, it enables us to provide transportation to as many students as possible. The core of the issue remains a nationwide need for school bus drivers. Local and national media have widely reported on it. We are no different than so many other job sectors that are working to fill openings, including retail, restaurants and hotels.”
“We know that for a while in town there’s been shortages,” Braga said. “I think all over the place people are feeling the impacts, whether it’s restaurants or substitute teachers for the schools.”
Channel 3 reached out to Ellington Public Schools to see if afternoon drop-offs would also be impacted, but have not yet heard back.
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