Buffalo Public Schools Superintendent Kriner Cash, during a School Board meeting Wednesday, raised the possibility of activating the National Guard – among other short term solutions – to mitigate a school bus driver shortage that is not only affecting the Buffalo Public School District, but districts across the country.
Cash said he was aware that Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker had deployed the National Guard to assist with the school bus driver shortage in his state.
School districts and private contractors in New York State are reporting a 15% to 20% shortage in the driver force.
"They can drive buses," Cash said of the guardsmen.
The superintendent also talked about the district paying parents to transport students to school and seeking the assistance of public transportation, but did not commit to any specific proposed solution.
In a normal school year that was not adversely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, Cash said there would be 667 school bus routes in the district, now reduced to 515 routes because of a national bus driver shortage that, he said, has become a crisis. The result is that some students have not been picked up to be taken to school, and others have arrived home from school hours late.
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"Not all of our drivers were able to qualify to return" to work, Cash said.
He said parents' frustrations are legitimate, but the district is working diligently on a solution.
"If we just keep at this, I think we can get there," Cash said.
School administrators said the district has received 210 applications from those seeking to work as school bus drivers. Cash said hiring 60 to 70 new drivers could solve the district's problem.
Meanwhile, Cash said, about 2,500 laptops used by students in the district have been returned for repairs or updates since the beginning of the school year. Approximately 6,000 more have not yet been accounted for. Cash said students are still getting new devices every day. He said he anticipates 6,000 new devices will be delivered to the district in the next couple of weeks, which will augment those laptops that have not yet been returned.
High school seniors will be prioritized when it comes to distributing the new devices, Cash said.
The superintendent also addressed bolstering security at district schools in the wake of a Sept. 10 attack on an assistant principal at Roosevelt Academy School 65 who was seriously injured, allegedly by the grandfather of a student.
Cash said some parents have been "amped up" in the frustration over new Covid-19 protocols since schools in the district reopened last week.
"It is unacceptable that anyone should ramrod their way into school to assault our staff," Cash said.
He said the district now has 50 security officers for 56 schools in the district, with the priority being schools with seventh graders and up. The officers are trained in prevention, intervention and de-escalation of volatile situations, Cash said. He added that the district is seeking to build a corresponding partnership with the Buffalo Police Department.   Â
