How Acute Is Nantucket's School Bus Driver Shortage? The Superintendent Raised The Possibility Of Calling In The National Guard

Is the National Guard going to bus students to school on Nantucket next year? Probably not, but it is one of several options that an increasingly desperate School Committee discussed last Friday as the district’s severe bus driver shortage persists with the 2026-27 school year on the horizon.

“That would certainly bring attention to the problem,” School Committee member Laura Gallagher Byrne said. “If we have to bring in the National Guard, we bring them in.”

Nantucket Public Schools superintendent Beth Hallett raised the possibility of requesting assistance from the National Guard as one way the state could intervene in an emergency.

“That happened before,” she said, referencing former Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker’s activation of the National Guard in 2021 to assist communities with busing in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re in serious trouble.”

A School Committee subcommittee is now officially recommending that the school district stop bussing students who live more than 2 miles from school and all students in grades 7 through 12 - which Superintendent Elizabeth Hallett previously called a “last resort.”

“It is such a bitter pill,” Byrne said. “I know we have no choice.”

Hallett stressed that the change is temporary and will only last until the district is able to solve its bus driver shortage.

“This is [a] temporary and emergency measures that we have to take,” she said. “The minute we have the ability to revoke it or to return to our previous policy, we will reconvene the committee.”

The district currently has only one driver who is certified to drive a classic “big bus” yellow school bus in the morning and afternoon, leaving them unable to transport some students who have previously relied on buses.

“This is a very uncomfortable situation, and we understand that,” Hallett said.

The School Committee is also considering other options to alleviate the shortage, including sharing information with students about the Nantucket Regional Transit Authority’s bus routes and training school staff on driving smaller vehicles to transport some students. The School Committee expressed some interest in working with the Nantucket Regional Transit Authority, to the extent allowed under state law.

“We are in dire straits, and we would like to at least have a conversation about anything that [the Nantucket Regional Transit Authority] can do,” Hallett said.

The Nantucket Public Schools have struggled with bus driver shortages for years, but the crisis reached an inflection point this spring, with some students waiting over an hour to get home.

In the past, the School Committee has relied on the Cape Cod Collaborative to recruit, hire, and retain drivers. But Cape Cod Collaborative has long since admitted that it cannot find drivers for Nantucket, and the district has now put the contract out to bid, searching for another provider that might be able to solve the problem. In the meantime, while wait times may be shorter this fall, many students will not be able to ride the bus at all.

The new restrictions could have serious consequences for some families. If students can’t drive, and their parents go to work early or otherwise can’t transport them to school, their options might be slim.

“My biggest concern is kids might not come to school if it’s not good weather,” Hallett said.

Hallett suggested that some exceptions would need to be made. For instance, students in higher grade levels with younger siblings, or students whose trips to and from school could become dangerous, may need to be allowed to ride on the bus even if they wouldn’t normally qualify.

What the district really needs is another driver with the requisite qualifications to operate a big school bus. Even one more driver could dramatically change the district’s fortunes. There is one driver, Hallett suggested, who may be moving toward obtaining the necessary licenses.

But that’s a difficult task, especially on Nantucket. Anyone who wants to get a license to drive a big school bus has to go off-island to train and test on a “long-nosed” school bus with an extended hood. Nantucket only has “flat-nosed” buses, meaning that drivers can’t train on-island, even though the knowledge they gain from that training will be irrelevant to their actual job.