After thousands of kids in the St. Louis Public School District were left without a way to and from school for two days in late February, district leaders say they are looking for innovative ways to ensure bus routes will be covered.
Dozens of school bus routes were left uncovered on Feb. 26-27 after a diesel mechanic found a noose near his workstation at the Missouri Central School Bus company, and bus drivers called off work in protest. The incident allegedly occurred after the mechanic had a disagreement with his supervisor about fixing bus brakes — some workers said that they’re often instructed to Band-Aid over glaring mechanical issues. Missouri Central has since hired a third-party investigator to look into the matter, and the St. Louis city chapter of the NAACP is also investigating.
Things mostly returned to normal following two days of scrambling, but there’s still a problem.
Aside from the internal dispute at the bus company, the organization is unable to cover around 14 bus routes, said Square Watson, chief operations officer of the school district. Watson said when the district first contracted with Missouri Central School Bus just over a year ago, it was during a time when they were short on bus drivers, leading district officials to also try reaching out to local clergy and other groups in an “all hands on deck” approach, Watson said.
The hang-up was a lack of adequate insurance that vendors must have in order to contract with the school district.
Now they’re revisiting the idea, but it’s a new vision that will require collaboration, intentionality and unity, according to Watson. And it will take time, he added.
“I want to get us set up so that at any moment’s notice, whenever we do need a bus or a minivan or whatever mode of transportation, we’ll be ready,” Watson said. “We’re exploring carpooling, gas cards and other methods.” He said there is a dire need to be prepared, because he doesn’t know when the internal driver dispute at Missouri Central will end, or when there will be another protest.
The last major bus driver shortage in the district happened in August 2022 when former St. Louis Public Schools Superintendent Kelvin Adams suspended bus service to eight schools after Missouri Central failed to hire enough drivers to cover the district’s nearly 17,000 students amid a nationwide driver shortage.
At that time, the district offered families weekly gas or metro cards to get through the temporary transportation disruption, while many parents struggled to figure out how to get their kids to school.
Contracting vendors
The school district’s contract with Missouri Central School Bus ends in June 2025. During the first year of the contract, the bus company was only able to cover a little over 150 of the 231 routes they have on their list, Watson said. But this wasn’t unusual as it took some time for the company to get acclimated with the school district, learn the system and ensure they had enough bus drivers.
Watson said this year has been much better, but due to driver call-offs that can’t be predicted, some routes suffer.
“We’ve still been short when it comes to drivers and if they do have driver call-offs [or] absenteeism, those things still impact the work, and that’s something we have no control over,” Watson said. “On paper they show that they will be able to cover all the routes, but when you get 10 to 15 routes [open] due to call-offs, then we’re short, so we rely on these alternative modes of transportation to cover those routes.”
Alternative modes of transportation involve the school district utilizing other vendors in addition to Missouri Central to help fill routes that aren’t covered. Officials said they’re currently in the process of preparing a “request for proposal” for potential vendors to submit bids, as Missouri Central’s contract will expire next year. This proposal will be shared publicly to attract new vendors.
Funding to cover paying vendors comes from the school district’s general operating budget, Watson said. They have about $27 million to $30 million in the budget for transportation, he said.
The vision is to have an on-call team that would be able to provide at least 10-passenger vans or minivans at a moment’s notice. Right now, drivers can get paid up to $50 an hour. A background check and vehicle insurance is required.
Watson said an insurance policy of $1 million is required at minimum for vehicles with fewer than 10 passengers, and for large buses, $5 million insurance policies at minimum are mandatory. And for vehicles that seat over 10 passengers, drivers must have a commercial driver’s license.
Community options
On Feb. 26 when the bus drivers called off work, Watson reached out to the Ecumenical Leadership Council of Missouri for help. The organization was founded in 2012 to provide economic and political empowerment to Missouri’s population of African American citizens, and has more than two dozen churches as members.
“We have the churches, so what we’re doing is reaching out and saying ‘hey, do you have a church van or church bus?’” said Clarence Jackson, president of the Ecumenical Leadership Council. Since the bus driver protest was over after two days, they ended up not assisting this time, he said.
“[Watson] wanted to make sure we had an auxiliary group of buses that would be available to provide transportation services,” Jackson said. “We have the buses, but we have a limitation on drivers. So right now I’m trying to enact a plan to find more men and women that could be available to be a bus driver if it came down to it. It’s an Emergency Plan B.”
Watson said they’re working to see how they can streamline the transportation process for students. Right now they sometimes use cabs, but they’re expensive, Watson said. They also provide bus passes to high school students. As part of the new vision, they’re hoping to be able to provide mileage reimbursement to students with disabilities, as they sometimes require aides to travel with them.
“With support from all of these different avenues that we’re exploring, this is going to look different,” Watson said. “This won’t be traditional. This won’t be the yellow bus. Uber didn’t come up overnight, yet now everybody is doing Uber. [The hope is that] everyone will be doing what we’re doing on the transportation end. We will make sure we’re spending the dollars the right way — but it will be collective, in collaboration and unity and for the good cause.”
The internal driver dispute was a blessing in disguise, he said.
“We’ve been trying to do something different with transportation because we’ve struggled for so long with a lot of these vendors that don’t necessarily have the best interest of our students in this district,” Watson said. “So this is an opportunity for us to grow within our community.”
District leaders say they need between 20 and 25 additional vendors to help cover routes on a day-to-day basis as well as for emergencies.
