Superintendent: Public School's Bus Situation Unsustainable And “Becoming Dire”

The Nantucket Public School district has been managing a problematic bus situation in recent years and it appears that the issue is reaching its breaking point as winter approaches with record enrollment and a dearth of bus drivers.

Schools superintendent Beth Hallett addressed the School Committee during Tuesday’s meeting and told them that the situation is “becoming dire” and that the schools are continuing to “struggle immensely” with the lack of bus drivers on the island.

“Cape Cod Collaborative (the company that the school contracts with to provide bus services) has only four drivers and we are seeing a large increase in the number of students needing transportation to and from school,” Hallett said. “As such, we have added an early route and a late route for grades six through 12 to and from our Airport Road bus stops on Old South Road, and especially serving the Richmond housing complexes, Ironwood, etc. At the bus stop right now, there have been 82 students counted waiting for the bus.”

Hallett said bus ridership has grown significantly since she joined the school system in 2019. At that time, the number of students riding school buses was below 200. Today, that number has increased to 447 students.

“It is unsustainable,” she continued. “We are trying to figure out what to do. It is very challenging because we want and need to have those children come to school. We are still at loss for more drivers. (Cape Cod Collaborative) is updating their data base now to have a clearer picture of regular ridership. That will at least give us particular numbers so that we know we are over by 10 students on this route, over by five students on this route, over by 15, over by 25. By understanding the numbers better, that will help us to get a stronger picture of how we can make some adjustments.”

Nantucket is currently paying its bus drivers $44 per hour. Hallett said the drivers have been working very hard to deal with this issue and to ensure all of the school’s children are getting to and from school safely and in as timely a manner as possible.

“I think we have some talented drivers. They are great at what they do and care very much about the kids,” Hallett said. “They see the importance of getting them to and from school and they don’t want to leave them behind.”

Jim Rockett is one of the school's bus drivers. He is a retired police officer and is tasked with driving one of the special education buses each morning. After he is done with his school pickups, he drops his bus off and heads downtown for his day job at the town building as one of the court officers for the Nantucket District & Superior Courts.

Rockett also has his commercial driver's license - which allows him to drive the larger school buses as well. He frequently shuttles sports teams to and from the ferries year-round. He said bus drivers will carry clickers to ensure they don't go over the maximum amount of students on a bus while also making sure they utilize every seat available.

"We're supposed to be getting an additional bus driver now and that will do a lot," Rockett said. "We are just doing the best we can. (On Thursday) one of the kids missed the bus. Now keep in mind it is special education. So here I am, I put my bus away and get over here to the courthouse as fast as I can. So (the school) calls me and says, 'Can you go out to such and such street and pick up so and so?' I'm like geez I'm going to be late (to work at court), but of course I did just because he's a special education kid. You have to pick him up."

"We care about the kids and we are doing the best that we can," Rockett continued. "You can count on that, and we'll keep doing that as long as we can."

The maximum seating capacity on a school bus is 71 passengers according to Massachusetts law. In an effort to create more available seats and an easier path to recruit drivers, the school has an order with Cape Cod Collaborative for small passenger vans coded for transportation to and from school that can accommodate up to seven or eight passengers. These buses do not require a CDL license.

“The licensure needed to drive one of those vans is significantly less taxing,” Hallett said. “There is no CDL that is required so anybody could do it."

Hallett said two or three vans will be brought to Nantucket. She is hopeful finding drivers will be easier without the CDL requirement.

"If it means that more children can get to school on time, I would absolutely do it myself too," Hallett said. "My hope is that perhaps there are some teaching assistants or ESPs or custodians that might be interested in that. The pay is pretty good. We're the highest paid district per hour for Cape Cod Collaborative. I think the rest of the mainland does around $38 per hour. So we're almost six or seven dollars more. There's a minimum too. It's a two-hour minimum. They'll always get paid for at least two hours even if their route is only 45 minutes."

Hallett said her hope is that the schools can utilize these vans to pick up some students who live in more outlying areas of the island such as Madaket, Siasconset, Cliff Road, and Wauwinet - freeing up the larger buses for the more crowded neighborhoods while also making it easier for them to complete their designated routes.

“Right now, our big buses are taking long trips and picking up some of those students and then coming back,” Hallett said. “So it would be very helpful to at least have those students in vans. It would certainly help get students to school on time and not having to get up at 6:15 to be outside at the bus stop at 6:30.”

A record number of 1,731 students enrolled in the public school system on the first day of school this year. On Tuesday, Hallett revealed that the enrollment has slightly increased and is now 1,735. She said policy changes may be needed in the future to address the issue.

“This might come to the School Committee with recommendations for changing our policy around either mileage (meaning expanding the 1 mile radius around the schools in which the district does not provide bus service), which I would not recommend, but potentially about the ridership of our older students as they are becoming more independent,” Hallett said. “Perhaps they can find other ways to get themselves to and from school using the NRTA buses, using bicycles, etc. It is not easy not being able to transport students, but we don’t have very much that we can do at this point with the lack of drivers.”

Committee member Tim Lepore asked Hallett if the school has spoken with the NRTA (Nantucket Regional Transit Authority) to see if there is a way to work with them. Hallett said the NRTA’s schedules would need to change dramatically because they don’t begin until 7:30 a.m. and would need to start one hour earlier. She said she has reached out to NRTA administrator Gary Roberts and the two are hoping to have discussions in the future. Roberts did not immediately return a request for comment from the Current.

Committee chair Pauline Proch asked Hallett if Cape Cod Collaborative is seeing similar challenges on the mainland.

“Not as many,” Hallett answered. “But they still have plenty of issues with finding bus drivers in general.”

Hallett added that Cape Cod Collaborative does not have extra drivers to lend to Nantucket, but in the past, they have have done so temporarily. Hallett said they have two drivers in the pipeline, and she is hoping they can get their CDLs in the next few months.

In the meantime, Hallett said the best thing families can do while the school tries to work through these issues is seek other routes of transportation if possible.

"If your child can bike and it's not too far, we certainly entertain bikers," Hallett told the Current on Thursday. "If anybody can walk, that's great too. If parents can drop them off, that's helpful. We do have some traffic challenges with drop off and pick up. It's really the afternoon that's the biggest problem. I'm not exactly sure why, but I think it's maybe because parents are going to work in the morning and are dropping their children off. I would have thought it would be the opposite because kids go to the club and kids have sports practices after school, but it seems to be more of a challenge for us in the afternoon than in the morning."

Hallett said if there is anyone who is interested and/or willing to go through the training and requirements needed to obtain a commercial driver's license, she is happy to facilitate it through the Cape Cod Collaborative but also said people can visit their website to learn more about the process. Anyone interested can email Hallett at: hallette@npsk.org