Dublin City Schools taking proactive measures in bus driver shortage

For the first time, the district has the ability to train drivers in house by having two certifies bus drivers.

DUBLIN, Georgia(41NBC/WMGT)— As school districts continue facing shortages of bus drivers, Dublin City Schools is being proactive by taking measure to retain bus drivers.

For the first time, the district has the ability to train drivers in house by having two certifies bus drivers.

Lorraine Warden has been a bus driver for over 20 years. She says it’s more than just driving a yellow bus.

“You’ve got to love to drive and you’ve got to love kids, it’s the best of both worlds. Those special kids that you make that connection with and you get to change their lives, that makes the job special,” she said.

Warden will get the opportunity to share her passion by helping train others. She is one of the two certified bus drivers for Dublin City Schools.

“We want to make you feel comfortable and we’d never put you behind the wheel and make you do something that you wouldn’t be comfortable with,” said Warren.

Dublin City Schools currently has 28 Bus Drivers, and looking for more.

By having trainers, employees will not have to travel two hours away for training.

Domonic Dardy is the Transportation Supervisor for Dublin City Schools. He says the pandemic impacted their bus routes.

“We had bus drivers getting sick, it was causing some of us to double and triple out routes, the routes were a little bit longer, so that put us also in a very bad situation,” he said.

According to Dardy, training will take about a week to complete.

“Handling the bus, knowing your do’s and don’ts and being able to drive that bus with distractions away,” said Dardy.

Warden says she’s looking forward to the positive impact the training will have on the school district.

“The more bus drivers we have, the less that we have to stress when someone calls and says I’m not feeling good today, oh no problem we have so and so we can call,” she said.

The school district will have four certified bus driver trainers by the end of January.

You can apply to be a Bus Driver with Dublin City Schools here.