While bus delays aren’t unheard of, a new normal quickly developed during the pandemic: buses arriving late to school. A shortage of bus drivers is the cause of this issue. School corporations all over the country have been steadily losing drivers, and the pandemic just exacerbated the problem.
In response to the issue, MCCSC implemented a four-tier route schedule for the 2022-2023 school year, which involved a lot of shuffling drivers around and having them drive multiple routes. As expected, there are still several kinks to be worked out—on the first day of school, seven buses were 45 minutes late.
Freshman Josiah Tofilau has had several issues with his bus, especially in the afternoon. When asked how his experience has been so far, his response was, “Pretty bad.” He said that it can take upwards of 40 minutes for his bus to arrive, and another half hour to get dropped off, despite being the first stop.
On the other hand, junior Savannah Brown said her experience “hasn’t been too bad.” She added, “It took them a few weeks to figure out the route, and sometimes I would have to get off early to walk home, but it’s better now that they figured [it] out.”
Changes are still being made as multiple emails have been sent out by the administration to inform families of possible bus number and route changes, but it looks like things will continue to get smoother as the year progresses.
