TUSD's late bus problem: How big?

Altogether, 337 students may have been late those days, Nov. 27, 30 and Dec. 1, according to figures provided by Tucson Unified School District officials.

There could have been more or less; because there are no bus attendance records, there's no way to be sure.

The transportation department doesn't keep record of arrival times. Photo copies of handwritten notes were all that could be produced after a request of records for late buses.

And that means that less than one month after what was described by TUSD Transportation Director Bill Ball as the worst day of the year, the extent of the district's transportation problems remain unclear — even to TUSD.

TUSD transportation officials have acknowledged a shortage of bus drivers and an increased need for services.

Both problems mean students are waiting longer at the street for buses, possibly missing federally funded breakfast and arriving late to class. TUSD does not notify their parents.

Safety concerns have been raised. More than a year ago parent Irene Lehane e-mailed Ball and stated: "I am one of the fortunate ones that can actually sit with my daughter in the mornings, but what about those parents who can't stay with their children?

"What are those parents and children supposed to do? You are essentially leaving those children out there (in this case 45 minutes!) unattended and unsafe."

The issue came to a head on Nov. 13 this year. Fifteen bus drivers called in absent or didn't show that Monday following a three-day weekend.

"We had our worst day of the year for the driver shortage," wrote Ball that night in an e-mail to TUSD officials.

TUSD's Department of School Safety had canceled new driver training in September for lack of qualified candidates. Ball said out of 40 potential drivers in August and September, only seven were hired.

On Oct. 9, Deputy Superintendent Patti Lopez e-mailed Ball about transportation problems at Miles Exploratory Learning Center. She wrote that there could be legal implications if exceptional education students were picked up late.

Ball responded he had worked for years with legal staff to eradicate the problems, but, "We are extremely limited by a lack of both drivers and buses."

In an e-mail regarding new bus driver standards to Vicki Barnett, supervisor of the Arizona Department of Public Safety's Student Transportation Division, Ball wrote that TUSD was getting very close to not having enough drivers to cover all its runs.

"When this happens," he wrote, "we will be pitting the 'actual safety concern of having student(s) standing on the street for up to an hour,' versus, 'having a potentially better school bus drivers, once we can get them.' "

Transportation needs for exceptional education students and homeless students in TUSD have grown. More private companies have been hired to address this need. That expense has more than doubled in a year, from $93,745 in November 2005 to $210,890.

Student riders under a federal law, which guarantees transportation for homeless students, have risen from 135 students between August and November of 2005 to 198 students in the same period this year.

Approximately 14,000 students ride TUSD buses each day. TUSD transportation has 243 daily bus routes with 11,000 bus stops. Generally, the district likes to employ 30 more drivers on top of that. Ball said his department, with a total budget of approximately $18 million, is budgeted for 275 drivers, about that size.

But TUSD employs 248 drivers, 10 of whom are on leave of absence. There are about 10 more people, including bus routers, mechanics, public safety officers and administrators, like Ball, who can drive a bus in a pinch. In fact, on the morning of Dec. 4, Ball drove bus routes in east Tucson.

The residual effects of late buses on student life — safety, nutrition and attendance — are much harder to gauge.

Ninety-nine TUSD schools offer students breakfast prior to the start of school through a federally funded program, said Pamela Palmo, the district's director of food services.

"There is no district-wide policy regarding feeding students who arrive late," Palmo wrote in an e-mail. "It has been my experience over the years when I've been visiting a school and this occurred, that the students who wanted breakfast were given that opportunity."

Each morning, as buses depart, transportation officials know what routes are running late. They usually call to notify principals of any problem. But there's no way to notify parents.

When students arrive late, they are checked in and sent to class. "(Students) were allowed to call their parents if they wanted to once they arrived," wrote Utterback Middle Magnet Principal Deborah Summers, in an e-mail describing how officials dealt with tardiness on Dec. 1.

For at least 13 years, districts all over Arizona have faced bus driver shortages, said Arizona Department of Public Safety's Barnett. "Some years are worse than others and this is one of the worst," she said.

However, there is no way to compare the number of drivers to previous years because DPS only keeps record of active drivers' licenses. As of Dec. 5, there were about 7,800 licensed school bus drivers in Arizona.

Low pay, benefits and odd hours have made it hard to find bus drivers, Barnett explained. New legal requirements may affect recruiting as well.

By 2007, she said, all drivers will have to pass a physical agility test, which includes carrying or dragging a 125-pound object 30 feet in 30 seconds.

Ball said he is aware of TUSD's shortcomings and hopes to get new computer software to track buses and students. He's also actively seeking drivers, trying to recruit workers in other fields who have been laid off, for example.

Ads placed in local newspapers tout starting wages of $11.48 an hour with full benefits.

The next training class begins Dec. 18, and the number of applicants is picking up.

"We think, solidly, in the month of January, we'll be back where we've always been," said Ball optimistically.