Coronavirus: Greenon schools unable to provide transportation, will be closed Wednesday

Gov. DeWine said Tuesday he is looking at ways to help with bus driver shortage.

Greenon Local School District will not be able to provide transportation, and will closeWednesday due to a bus driver testing positive for the coronavirus.

“We received word this morning (Tuesday) after the school day began that we will be unable to continue providing transportation in the short term due to quarantines,” said Superintendent Darrin Knapke. “We had a bus driver test positive for COVID-19 and are contact tracing our transportation staff at this time to determine how this will affect out transportation availability.”

Knapke said students who ride the bus needed to be picked up Tuesday at the end of the school day and that all evening activities, games and practices were canceled. He also said that school will be closed Wednesday.

“We hope to be able to resume school later this week, but we encourage families to prepare for the possibility of a short period of distance learning, self-transportation for all families, or school closure,” he said.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said he knows there is a problem with bus driver shortages and has asked his team to help come up with some solutions.

“This is clearly a real, real problem out there. I don’t know what we can do but I’ve asked our team to see if they can come up with some ways to help,” he said during Tuesday’s press conference. “It’s a problem, I recognize it’s a problem, and we’re taking a hard look at this to see what we can come up with.”

DeWine said he asked the schools that have contacted him if they had any specific ideas.

“We are looking at the licensing issue and if there’s anything we can do there. We’re looking at man power situations, so we’re looking at who else in our communities, in the state, has the legal ability to drive a bus and has a skill set needed to drive a bus,” he said. “These buses contain our most precious things that we have and that’s our children. We want to make sure whatever we do, we do in a very careful matter.”

According to the school district’s COVID-19 dashboard, there are 17 positive and 131 quarantined cases from last week.

Students who attend other schools but ride Greenon transportation were still taken home Tuesday.

Families will be updated with the district’s next steps later this week.

About the Author