Kettering City Schools offered me the opportunity to drive a school bus as a part of their promotion to recruit 16 more drivers for this school year. I met with Todd Silverthorn, Kettering’s transportation supervisor, who has been working in this industry for decades.
Bus driver positions are some of the most commonly advertised for among school districts. In some districts, the superintendent is now certified so they can fill in as needed. Other districts have board members listed as backup school bus drivers.
It’s also a crucial part of getting students to school. One of the biggest problems facing Ohio school districts right now is chronic absenteeism, or students who consistently miss school. Statewide, the chronic absenteeism rate dropped this past school year, with about 25% of students consistently missing school compared to about 30% in the 2021-2022 school year, according to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, but one in four kids are still missing classroom time.
Making sure a kid has a way to get to and from school helps, administrators have told me.
Silverthorn said the hardest part of bus driving is getting through the mental block of how big it was. Once I climbed behind the wheel and adjusted the seat and the steering wheel, I found he was right.
Driving a school bus is not that different to driving a minivan. It has more mirrors than a car, which helped me judge distances as I drove in the Kettering Transportation bus lot. Unlike driving a box truck, I could see all the way around the vehicle, which would be helpful to see where students were as the driver picks up and drops off students. I had to crank the wheel to turn more than I was used to, but it was not hard to turn.
The biggest difference I noticed was how many controls were on the bus. There are controls to open and close the side door next to the steering wheel, on top of the regular control panel on a bus.
I struggled the most with the hand brake, which needs to be engaged every time the bus comes to a complete stop. It takes a hard pull to engage it, and a firm push to disengage, but I got the hang of it eventually.
What struck me the most in driving the bus was the hard brake that a school bus has. Silverthorn had me speed up and slam on the brakes, and the bus stopped almost instantaneously.
Credit: David Sherman
Credit: David Sherman
“Bus driving is crucial to a student’s day,” Silverthorn told me. “We’re the first person they see that represents the district. We’re the last ones they see in the afternoon, representing the district.”
Some families also live too far to walk to school, Silverthorn noted, and their families can’t drive them to school.
Bus drivers also get to know their students well, Silverthorn said. Kari Basson, spokeswoman for Kettering schools, said at open house, students are just as excited to see who their bus driver is as their teacher.
“Building those relationships, knowing your students, you can tell when those students are on an off day to where we can say, hey, you know, what’s going on?” Silverthorn said.
Kettering, Centerville, Dayton and Beavercreek are among the districts who are still hiring bus drivers this school year.
Silverthorn said as a 22-year transportation worker, the bus driver shortage has been a problem in every district he has worked in and during each school year.
He said while the problem is near universal, the best solutions are local.
“It’s been a question for years on how can we get more drivers, what can we do to attain more drivers?” Silverthorn said. “And it depends on the demographics in the cities because some folks, they pay extremely well and they’re still having the issues.”
Unfunded mandates by the state for public schools to transport private and charter school students and fining public schools who can’t comply don’t help, Silverthorn said.
Silverthorn is a board member of the Ohio Association for Pupil Transportation, which advocates for public school busing.
“I feel, and my colleagues on the board feel that I think if we focused our laws on trying to help solve the driver shortage issue instead of penalized districts - I think that would be more beneficial,” he said.
Anyone who wants to become a bus driver should reach out to their local school district, Silverthorn said. Districts often pay for commercial driver’s license training, which is required to drive a school bus in Ohio, and offer benefits.
“Reach out to your transportation departments, ask and inquire what you can do to help,” he said. “It’s a great career to have.”
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