GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. — Guilford County Schools announced they are restarting regular bus services on April 4 for several schools in the district.
The school district said all students will have access to ride the traditional yellow school bus starting next week.
For weeks, many Guilford County high school students have boarded city buses to get to class. It's part of a nationwide school bus driver shortage. Now, thanks to the district's partnership with the cities of Greensboro and High Point students at Page High, Grimsley High, Smith High, Dudley High, Andrews High, Kearns Academy, High Point Central High, and The Academy at Smith have the option to ride a traditional school bus to class. Students can still ride public transit for free by using their OneCard.
"We really want to encourage people to still use transit if that is an option for you and we look to continue the partnership with both High Point Transit Authority and the city of Greensboro Transit Authorities to just enhance those programs going forward," said Michelle Reed, Chief Operations Officer for Guilford County Schools.
Bus riders can find updated bus route information in the Here Comes the Bus app. Students should check their bus route info because some students will have new routes, stop locations, and stop times.
New bus information will also be at each school. Any student who has used temporary school shuttles will switch back to the yellow bus service.
“We are pleased to be able to resume bus service to all of our students, but I think it is important to remember that our work continues to ensure we can sustain student transportation,” said Reed. “Like districts across the country, we are still experiencing a historic bus driver shortage.”
Since January, the number of COVID-19 cases has declined, and a perfect attendance bonus for bus drivers has improved absence rates. Reed said at their peak in January, they were seeing more than 70 drivers call out daily. Now, they are in the single digits.
GCS has also hired 16 new drivers and is 54 drivers away from becoming completely staffed.
"We are no different from other school districts that have a shortage and are still experiencing a shortage in our vacancy pool, but we will continue to work together in a collaborative manner and we hope to see the end of our driver shortage," Reed said.
Reed said GCS was also able to move some of the substitute drivers to permanent positions.
Stay connected to local, national, and breaking news: Download the WFMY News 2 app.
►Text the word APP to 336-379-5775