Mendon CUSD #4

08/07/2022 | News release | Distributed by Public on 08/07/2022 06:21

Bussing Situation Due to driver shortage

​I want to let parents know we understand the inconvenience our transportation situation has caused. We are not happy about it as well. Our intent has been to always provide the best transportation to and from school that we can with as little interruption as possible.
Over the summer we experienced the loss of drivers. Our transportation department worked to maintain routes with as little change as possible to the current routes. The initial plan worked even with the loss of drivers we had experienced by moving some students onto other routes. Unfortunately, we lost another driver in mid to late July. We could no longer run regular routes and be able to cover all our students. Our transportation department then had to overhaul routes. It was based on an approach used previously when the district had multiple sites. We knew this was not ideal and our hope was it would be only for a short period of time until we can hire additional drivers. We also know we will have to make changes as we move forward based on some feedback from parents during registration. We appreciate their suggestions.
Yesterday we had some good news! We had two candidates apply for bus drivers. Our hope is we will be able to onboard them very quickly and return to our normal routes. They will need to do some driver training courses and complete background checks so they may drive. We will keep you posted as things progress.
Also, in response to some parent requests, we are going to open the elementary and MS/HS buildings early during this time at 7 am if parents choose to drop off their child(ren) before going to work. We will continue to do this until regular bus routes return.
I would like to personally apologize for not communicating this prior to registration. Most of this transpired in such a fluid manner that I was not confident in sharing information which was not complete. The plan was not able to be shared until two days before registration. We had thought it would be easier to explain in person rather than through a post online. In the future we will share as much as we can to avoid upsetting all of you.
Please stay tuned as we will attempt to make future posts letting you know of any changes.
Supt. Scott Riddle