COMAL COUNTY, Texas — Some Comal ISD (CISD) parents were left looking for other options to get their kids to and from school this year. The district decided to create "no service zones" for each individual campus, limiting where buses stop for school pick up and drop off. This comes after CISD could not fill more than 20 positions over the summer.
"By doing these no service zones, it gave parents the opportunity to plan for the school year on arranging transportation for their child," said Steve Standford, Assistant Superintendent of Communications for the district. The first notice went out to families July 20th, about a month before school started.
Mom of two, Katie Johanningmeier, said she immediately panicked. Her husband travels for work three to four days of the week and she works about 45 minutes away from her children's school.
"There's no safe way for him to either walk or bike if it came to that, if we were that desperate, there's no way for him to do that," she said.
Stanford said the no service zones were not selected with the expectation of having students walking or biking to school. "It just means that we are not able to provide transportation," he added.
Johanningmeier sought support from other families in community Facebook groups to see if she could find someone willing to carpool, but had no luck.
Eventually, the principal of her son's school was able to work it out so that her son could stay after school a little later, but most days, Johanningmeier will still have to leave work early.
"This is not like I just need a week of help, no I need the entire school year," she said.
Even though the district eliminated 14 routes, Stanford said the director of transportation and other department staff members have been filling in.
"The issue with that is when parents have calls and issues, there’s nobody in the office to answer those calls, so we’ve been moving staff around that aren’t in transportation to field those calls," he said.
Stanford said there are currently eight drivers undergoing training, but that would only free up the transportation department to return to their assigned roles, and not increase the number of routes.
"The only solution to this is for us to hire more 22 bus drivers, there’s nothing else," said Stanford.
He added the district has been aggressively recruiting for years offering higher pay, incentives, and more flexibility.
"If you can only drive in the morning or you can only drive in the afternoon, we’ll take you," he said.
According to the district, the starting pay for entry-level drivers without prior experience is $16.16 an hour, compared to $13.50 three years ago. Drivers with experience start at a higher rate. Currently, the average driver at Comal ISD earns $20 an hour.
The district also pays for the required CDL training and offers current drivers a $1,000 incentive for referring others. CISD has also included a $200 incentive per month for drivers with perfect attendance.
Those interested in applying can do so here.