Ohio's School Transportation Challenges

In this episode of OSBA’s Leading the Way Podcast, host Scott Gerfen sits down with Doug Palmer, OSBA’s Senior Transportation Consultant, to discuss the latest in school transportation policy and funding.

🏫 Key Topics:

✔️ Funding for school transportation in Ohio’s latest budget

✔️ The ongoing bus driver shortage and its impact on districts

✔️ Strategies districts are using to recruit and retain drivers

✔️ A new bill to stiffen penalties for illegally passing school buses

✔️ How technology is transforming transportation efficiency

Doug also shares insights into OSBA’s Master of Transportation Administration (MTA) program and Virtual Transportation Supervisor program, which help districts manage transportation more effectively.

📌 Resources & Links:🔗 Learn more about OSBA’s transportation programs: https://www.ohioschoolboards.org/master-transportation-administration-mta-information.https://www.ohioschoolboards.org/virtual-transportation-supervisor-vts-program-information

🔗 Follow OSBA for more updates: ohioschoolboards.org.🎧

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Thanks to our sponsor Pappas & Associates, shaping policy with integrity: https://www.pappaskc.com.

For more resources, training and advocacy updates from the Ohio School Boards Association, visit ohioschoolboards.org.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

School transportation funding, the bus driver shortage, and should Ohio increase the penalties for illegally passing a school bus? We'll talk about these issues coming up in this episode of OSBA's Leading the Way podcast. It's brought to you by Happens and Associates. They're shaping policy with integrity. Well, hey everyone, it's OSBA Scott Gurfin. Transportation is a critical part of our education system, getting students to and from school safely and efficiently. The next two-year budget for K-12 education brings some better news for transportation in terms of funding. But the ongoing bus driver shortage remains a significant challenge for districts nationwide. Also, a bill has been introduced at the State House that would stiffen penalties for those who illegally pass school buses. Well, to help us navigate these issues today is Doug Palmer, OSBA senior transportation consultant. Doug brings extensive experience in school transportation policy, also works closely with our districts to support their operations. Doug, welcome to Leading the Way. Hi, Scott. Glad to be here. I want to talk first about the next proposed state budget. Can you give us an overview of what districts might expect in terms of transport in terms of transportation funding in this budget proposal?

SPEAKER_01 1:23

For regular transportation, they are increasing it again 4.15% the minimum. You either receive your state share times your cost of either per student or per mile. And the minimum was 41.67% this year. It's increasing to 45.85% for the fiscal year 26. And then it increases to 50% and even 50% in the year fiscal year of 27. So this is better news for funding? Well, this is it, it's it's the path that was laid out six years ago. They're continuing to go back up to a more reasonable amount for funding school bus transportation. The only thing I can see maybe that lags a little bit is they're using fiscal year 22's cost, where fiscal year 24's costs have actually gone up another $200 per student for transportation.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

And yeah, obviously expenses are not like they were in 2022, right, is what you're trying to say.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

That's for sure.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Uh one of the things I wanted to ask you is is how might this impact, is this going to impact districts in urban, suburban, and rural districts? Is it going to impact those differently or no?

SPEAKER_01 2:48

Well, it'll impact the positively the ones that are on a lower than a 41% or a 45% funding guarantee. Uh I not really a guarantee, but there's a the state shares 45%. If they're above the 45%, they won't see a change in their funding. But if they're a district that's below that 45%, their funding will increase slightly.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

So, Doug, I want to shift gears now, so to speak. Another challenge ongoing for districts is the bus driver shortage. And I know we've been talking to you about this for a while now. Where do things stand today?

SPEAKER_01 3:31

As we've progressed into the shortage continuing, schools are still trying to find ways to do more with fewer drivers. Anecdotally, almost every district I talk to doesn't have a sub bus driver. They're using their office staff, they're using mechanics, they're using people that work within the school as a sub bus driver, but that means their jobs are going unfulfilled, uh the tasks that they're supposed to be doing. We don't have that level of sub-drivers that we had back in the back in 2018-2019.

SPEAKER_00 4:06

And you know, we talk about recruiting and retaining drivers. Is this simply a money issue, or is it we can't find the drivers out there who the candidate drivers, I guess?

SPEAKER_01 4:20

It's a very difficult position to try to hire for because you're trying to hire for a position that has to dedicate 11 hours of the day to being available to work when you're only driving maybe six hours or seven hours out of that 11. So you're you're being paid uh uh as a part-time person, but you're you're you're actually committing to more than a full-time job. Pay is not what is drawing people in. There was one uh bus vendor in Columbus, Ohio that was offering $36 an hour and they didn't receive one applicant. So it can't be pay alone as the driving factor that's keeping people away. And yeah, and what do what are we seeing nationwide?

SPEAKER_00 5:08

I mean it's the same. It's the same, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:11

Yeah, uh, there was an article that ran in uh the Toledo Blade that in the city of Chicago, they have 325,000 students and they're only providing a yellow bus service for 17,000. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

What are some of the strategies districts have been doing? And I know we've talked about this in the past, but is has anything really changed? I mean, uh the other thing I wanted to ask you is are we seeing districts that are, you know, hiking the pay for drivers to go above what their maybe their neighboring districts are offering?

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Really what we're seeing is districts competing for the same people, raising pay or benefits, and one district has enough this year, and then it's a seesaw battle, the next district raises more. And so we have the same drivers, we're not increasing the number of drivers. We're in we're we're just increasing the tension between districts.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

And Doug, do you see where this is going to change anytime soon? Where there's going to be this influx of people who want to drive a school bus.

SPEAKER_01 6:15

Only in times of really, really bad economy when you need something to fill in because your regular job just isn't cutting it, or you've lost your regular job, or you've lost one income out of the household. Do we see an influx of people willing to drive school buses? When the economy is good, we're going to see a low recruitment level.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

Uh, Doug, do you anticipate that we'll see any changes from the legislature that may help alleviate the shortage?

SPEAKER_01 6:47

Well, we certainly have been in contact with them to give them ideas uh to help what they can do. And I would be more than happy to help with them. Or if a school board member has uh has a way to contact their legislature, I wouldn't be more than happy to talk about solutions to this issue.

SPEAKER_00 7:07

While we're uh discussing the State House, I know that there was a bill that was introduced here uh recently that would increase the penalties for those who pass school buses illegally. Can you talk about that and what exactly uh does this bill entail?

SPEAKER_01 7:26

When I was asked to do a survey and provide information to the safety work group, what we found up in an area of Ohio is that even though people were being convicted of passing school buses, the judge was imposing a very small fine. In fact, speeding was a higher fine than passing a school bus. The state patrol has weighed in on this a lot.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

And when you were talking about the the school, the safety group, that was the governor's safety group that did provide, I think, more than a dozen recommendations. And I and this was one of them, correct?

SPEAKER_01 8:02

This was one of them. They have also recommended that cameras be installed on buses to identify those passing the school buses. Right. There was also talk about imposing fines, uh civil fines on vehicle owners that their vehicles pass the school bus if they can't identify the driver. So there are options out there, but it it's it's very hard to get one thing passed and not affect uh the decision making on the other side.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

Like one other thing uh I want to touch on just before I let you go is technology. And we know that just keeps improving in in our everyday lives. Are we seeing that routing, for example, is that becoming more efficient and probably necessary to become more efficient with fewer drivers out there? Are we seeing advances in technology in that way?

SPEAKER_01 8:54

The routing software companies continue to advance their programs to more accurately determine what who's riding, how often the bus stops. There's programs that can watch the bus, and so the parents have access to here comes the bus is one type of program that they'd if they have an app on the phone, they can watch and see how when the bus gets five minutes away, for example. But we still go back to needing the parents to verify whether their children are going to ride the bus or not.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

I know you are uh responsible for two programs that our districts subscribe to here, or it's I guess we'll talk about the Master of Transportation program, which is it's really kind of like a course that you would take, you know, maybe at a university or something like that. But it really is geared toward superintendents or those who run the transportation system in the district, right? And you've been seeing this, I think, grow year after year.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

We've had a steady growth. It's a three-year program, so we cover all three modules governance, operations, and compliance. And what it does is it makes the person taking that course that year the expert in that module of transportation. And it's it's very, very beneficial. Very, very beneficial.

SPEAKER_00 10:17

And finally, we we also have our virtual transportation supervisor program that many districts are taking advantage of. And talk about that a little bit in case someone watching or listening wants to take advantage of that.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

The transportation, this the virtual transportation supervisors is a district-wide program. So it's uh the MTA class or the Masters of Transportation Administration class is for a singular individual. But the transportation supervisor program, the virtual one, it's for the entire district. So if you want to if you have principals that want to know more about transportation for what they deal with, board members, if they want to look in and see what's going on, and there's uh data and calculators for the transportation department, there's updates and transportation-related topics, and and we keep them up to date with with roundtable discussions. So it has something for everyone in the district.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

I'll be sure to put links to those two programs that OSBA offers in uh the show notes. Doug, any final thoughts from you today?

SPEAKER_01 11:22

Yeah, one thing I do want to mention, Scott, is that we have recorded the past three years worth of MTA classes. And if a district really is interested in looking back at what a module offered, they can take a full module or they can take those classes individually, which can bring someone up to speed. We do have, we're I'm also seeing schools using principals as transportation supervisors while they know the school program. They kind of get lost in the alphabet soup of transportation.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

Doug, uh, thank you so much for joining us today. Your expertise is uh invaluable to our members, and we appreciate all that you do to support school transportation in Ohio.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

Thanks, Scott.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

And thank you to our listeners for tuning in to leading the way. If you found this episode helpful, uh be sure to subscribe and share it with your colleagues. And finally, thanks to our sponsor, Tapist and Associates, they're shaping policy with integrity.