The Central Okanagan school district is facing a “serious” shortage of school bus drivers. School administrators will hear from the committee this week that 16 of the school district’s 70 regular drivers have either retired or resigned since September 2021. This resulted in frequent cancellations. “In order for the department to have the least impact on student transportation, we have merged bus services into three separate areas throughout the district to compensate for the loss of drivers we could not replace,” SD23 Transport Director Gail Prokopchuk said in a note to school board. “Training and recruitment of new drivers is ongoing and many different bus recruitment campaigns have led to new applications,” Prokopchuk continued, adding that replacement drivers are expected to return to normal next fall. This year more than 4,549 students boarded the bus on 70 routes. The district says it expects to receive 7,000 applications for next school year, though not all will be approved. Priority is given to children who live beyond three kilometers, four kilometers and 4.8 kilometers from elementary, high school or high school respectively. The polite riders — there were 743 last year — then complete the routes. Prokopchuk said in its report that funding the school bus program was an “ongoing challenge”. Rider tuition collected from 2009-2010 does not fully fund the program, which is sponsored by the regular educational funding of the school district. School districts are not required to provide transportation, but it is a service traditionally offered by SD23, the report notes.
