Bulloch County Schools will resume bus travel on some dirt roads starting Wednesday morning, according to a release from the school district.
While Bulloch County Public Works is still unable to assure that all dirt roads are safe, they did give the school district the go ahead to let bus drivers start assessing some dirt road routes for any lingering safety issues, Hayley Greene, director of Public Relations for the Schools System, wrote in an email.
“There are still some roads that are not passable or safe for our school buses,” said Julie Chance, Ed.D., director of transportation for Bulloch County Schools. “Our drivers have worked very hard with our lead drivers over the past four days to assess hundreds of miles of roads to provide valuable information that has allowed us to update our alternate transportation plan.”
Drivers are now contacting families to update them about their bus stop’s status.
“Please understand that It will be important to keep with the alternate routes for roads that are not deemed passable for safe bus travel,” Chance said. “It’s ultimately about keeping drivers and students safe, and that must come first.”
The school district has been under a temporary alternate transportation plan since Aug. 12, when the system reopened after being closed for five days due to severe weather, extensive flooding, and substantial damage to roadways from Tropical Storm Debby.
Also, because of a perennial shortage of school bus drivers, some delays were already occurring in the first two days of school, Aug. 1 and 2, before Tropical Storm Debby.
“Double routing, even triple routing has been our norm for several years now due to bus driver shortage. There’s a nationwide shortage,” Greene said.
The Bulloch County district remains, consistently, 10 to 12 bus drivers short of the number the system could use, with about 100 routes, she said.
Parent Transportation Resources on website
There are multiple resource links on the school district’s Transportation webpage (www.bullochschools.org/bus) that can assist parents with bus questions. There is a “Transportation Help Desk” along with a “Find My Bus Stop” link to locate the nearest bus stop.There is a Transportation Request Form to request a new bus stop, and the Edulog Parent Portal mobile application is there to download, which will allow parents/guardians to receive messages and important information about your child’s bus services.