Local school districts continue to struggle try to fill bus driver vacancies before the start of the new year.

But none plan on limiting service, like Bowling Green City Schools is planning for the start of the school year.

Perrysburg is not planning to go to the 2-mile radius, said James Mapus, executive director of the school district operations

“We have so many major highways running through us that don’t have a good walking situation with some of the neighborhoods. We want to still supply busing as much as we can,” he said.

“We are doing the best we can. At the end of the day, when they say ‘we had to wait 30 minutes for my kid to get home today.’ Well, we are still offering transportation and we don’t want to have no high school busing, which we are legally allowed to do. We don’t want to take that route,” Mapus said.

North Baltimore transports students who live less than 1 mile from their school. Going to the 2-mile radius has been discussed, but not seriously, said Treasurer Steven Stewart.

“It’s definitely something that can happen in the future if we get short a driver,” Stewart said.

Lake Local Schools has been able to retain drivers through the pandemic, and on the other side of it, said Superintendent Jim Witt.

“We’ve been OK,” he said, rapping on a wooden desk in front of him at last week’s board of education meeting. “Our people have been really loyal.”

Lake’s starting bus driver pay is $21.40 per hour. There are 19 full-time drivers and three subs, and 19 routes.

Even if there was a shortage of drivers, going to the 2-mile limit would not work in Lake, Witt said.

“That’s not a real viable option for us, where our location is,” he said.

Expanding to 2 miles would affect about four students, he said. Lake has one campus on Lemoyne Road and Ohio 795.

Northwood Local Schools Treasurer Angel Adamski said they have not considered bonuses or limited bus routes.

“We bus everybody right now,” Adamski said. “We can always use subs, and we have gotten through the year somehow. We’ll see about this year.”

Due to a lack of bus drivers, Bowling Green City Schools cut its transportation for elementary students, to only provide busing if a child lives beyond 2 miles of their school.

The policy previously was 1 mile for grades kindergarten to five. Grades six-12 continue to be 2 miles.

Based on this year’s current enrollment, there are 2,048 students eligible at a 1-mile limit with 20 routes. At 2 miles, there are 1,066 eligible with 14 routes, according to Toby Snow, who is the district’s director of transportation.

Last year, his department had four retirements and three drivers on long-term sick leave; he doesn’t expect they will return.

That put the department down seven drivers and as a result, at least two routes a day were canceled from January to the end of the school year, Snow said at a recent board of education meeting.

He has 11 full-time drivers for the start of this school year, and is down three drivers.

Ohio Revised Code requires schools to bus students outside a radius of 2 miles.

Pay for bus drivers in Wood County ranges from $16.73-$22 an hour.

At Bowling Green, an entry level rate for a new bus driver with zero experience is $17.64. After five years, the pay is $18.85, according to Treasurer Cathy Schuller.

The board of education has called a special meeting Monday to discuss issues relating to the shortage of bus drivers.

Some districts are offering bonuses to attract and retain drivers.

Perrysburg Schools is paying $22 an hour for a full-time bus driver with a signing bonus and additional opportunities driving for field trips, according to Mapus.

He said they normally have 42 full-time drivers and are down 16.

Mapus expects that it would be three months before a person could get certified if they were to take the job right now.

Drivers that normally have a junior high route paired with an elementary route are going to have a high school route at the end of that. As a result, high school busing will be pushed back a little bit.

“It may be challenging getting kids back home, with the way that the high school and the elementary get out really close in time, but we think it’s important to offer that. If kids have to wait 20 to 25 minutes for a bus, that’s better than no bus at all,” Mapus said.

They are giving a one-time lump sum payment of $1,500 to get current employees to add on work as a bus driver, he said.

Perrysburg has almost 6,000 students, with 3,200 using the buses each day. They also have 22 other non-public districts they are required to bus more than 300 kids to each day.

Eastwood Local Schools is offering a $1,000 bonus at the one-year employment date, said Treasurer Brad McCracken.

That bonus has been in place for more than five years, said Eastwood Superintendent Brent Welker.

“We put it in there to get drivers to stick around for a year,” he said.

Eastwood will be fully staffed when school starts next month, Welker said. While they are doing OK with the number of substitute drivers they have, “we’re always looking for more.”

The starting bus driver pay at Eastwood is $20 per hour.

“We have always been able to staff our routes, but is been pretty close sometimes,” Welker said. “We’re grateful for every driver that we have.”

Otsego Local Schools is offering a $1,000 split shift bonus for drivers that do a morning route and return to do an afternoon route.

Most drivers already do that, said Treasurer Steve Carroll, but this helps retain employees.

Pay at the school for drivers with zero experience is $16.73.

One Otsego driver is retiring at the end of the month but will stick around as a sub for field trips, announced Superintendent Adam Koch at Wednesday’s board meeting.

“We’re going to be fine to start the year,” he said. “All routes will be covered.”

Koch said the district has been able to stay fully staffed, but it’s been difficult to build up a bank of substitutes.

The district has cross-trained three custodians to be bus drivers. They, along with Eva Vasher, transportation director, will be used until someone is hired to fill the one open spot.

One person is being interviewed, Koch said.

Depending on the person, it can take three months or more for them to get a CDL, Vasher said.

“All of the school districts work very hard to get the students where they need to go, and we need patience. Some days it’s tough but we get it done,” she said.

Bonuses are being considered at North Baltimore, where starting pay for bus drivers is $16.84, Stewart said.

“We haven’t had a problem keeping them,” he said about bus drivers. “Finding them is the trick.”

Stewart said North Baltimore is not short drivers — yet.

“One driver gets sick and now we’re short on drivers,” he said.

The district uses six drivers to transport students in grades K-12, and three more for preschool, Penta and one student with special needs.

Stewart said a bus driver must take five written tests, then drive for 12 hours with an instructor and pass a precheck test.

“It’s difficult. It’s not an easy task,” Stewart said, adding that North Baltimore pays for the training. “If we didn’t, we wouldn’t get anybody.”

At Rossford Exempted School District, starting pay for bus drivers is $21.96, with substitutes being paid $20 per hour.

“We are making things work,” said Treasurer James Rossler.

Due to the location of the elementary, the district transports all students in grades one-five, he said. Those within 1 mile of the junior-senior high school must walk or find transportation.

At Elmwood Local Schools, 13 regular drivers cover routes.

“We have always had all routes covered,” said Treasurer Jenalee Niese.

(Marie Thomas-Baird, Roger LaPointe and Debbie Rogers contributed to this story.)