Fairfax County Public Schools has managed to significantly reduce its bus driver vacancies, which in turn is bumping up on-time rates.
As part of her “Opening of Schools” report, Superintendent Michelle Reid reported last Thursday (Sept. 25) that 96% of bus routes were completed on time to start the current school year — a figure that astounded some School Board members.
“When I was a parent for many years at the bus stop, it was like, ‘oh, it’s the first day. It will take a week or two before anyone is on time,'” said Braddock District School Board Representative Rachna Sizemore Heizer.
To see a 96% success rate on the first day is “amazing,” she said at the school board meeting.
One reason for the achievement is a year-over-year 48% drop in vacancies, from 126 to 65.
Reid said the effort providing reliable transportation went beyond those behind the wheel.
“Drivers, mechanics, routers, dispatchers — just an incredible team,” she said, praising “the logistics involved in managing a fleet as large as Greyhound.”
Filling vacant driver and attendant positions and training personnel in time for the start of school represented a collaborative effort between FCPS’s transportation and human resources departments, said Andy Mueck, the FCPS chief operating officer.
“It was definitely teamwork,” Mueck said.
Hiring personnel try to speed up the process by accomplishing all needed steps, including health screenings and background checks, at one time.
“Once you get the driver candidate here, we can do everything,” Mueck said of the process that has been established. “The more you get done before they leave, the better chance to you have capturing them.”
William Solomon, the school system’s chief human resources officer, said it was a competitive advantage to have “a one-stop shop so that our candidates can complete everything” versus “having to send them from location to location to location” for various necessary steps.
Recruitment efforts are continuing, with FCPS hosting six bus driver fairs between early October and mid-December.
Pay rates for drivers start at $27.60 per hour, with attendants beginning at $19.51 per hour. The top of the scale is more than $31 per hour, and some new hires are eligible for signing bonuses of up to $2,000.
Drivers participate in a training program of up to two months and obtain a commercial driver’s license before hitting the roads solo.
This school year, FCPS will operate more than 1,600 buses (31 of them battery-powered) over nearly 7,000 routes spanning more than 93,000 daily miles — almost four times the circumference of Earth. About 130,000 students are transported each day.
Board member raises concerns about energy drinks
More than a decade ago, FCPS began phasing out sugary drinks from vending machines in its facilities. Now, one school board member believes there’s another threat that should be addressed.
“We’ve seen an increase in energy-drink usage among students, particularly in middle school and high school,” at-large board member Ryan McElveen said at the school board meeting.
“That’s concerning,” he said. “It can be very harmful to student health.”
Marketed under a variety of brands, energy drinks typically contain high levels of caffeine and taurine. Concerns about health impacts have led the American Academy of Pediatrics to counsel parents to limit children’s intake of all products with caffeine — and to avoid energy drinks altogether.
“Drinking these beverages can cause anxiety, hyperactivity, inattention, sensation-seeking and poor decision-making,” the organization said in a December 2023 statement.
Despite concerns, up to 50% of teens report consuming the beverages, and some school districts — though not Fairfax — sell them at school.
“Obviously kids aren’t procuring energy drinks at school [in Fairfax], but they’re bringing them in,” McElveen said.
While there may be limits to what FCPS can do to address the issue, “that’s a community conversation we need to have,” he said.
