KETTERING — Kettering City Schools said four bus routes for Kettering Middle School will not be running this afternoon due to staff shortages from calloffs, according to a message from the school’s principal.
The district is asking parents to arrange pickup of their middle school students if they ride buses 29, 31, 33 and 60.
“We were running very thin on drivers last school year, but since the pandemic has hit we have had a number of drivers retire or decide to not drive any longer and we have not been able to hire enough drivers to fill our routes,” said Ken Lackey, director of business services at Kettering City Schools said. "We also have some staff quarantined at this time, so when you combine that with the driver shortage and normal absences we were not able to run all of our routes today. When we are not able to staff a route we are notifying parents that they will not have transportation services for that day.
The announcement comes after the district has a couple of buses running about an hour behind schedule this morning.
Today is the first day for in-person learning this year after the district started with classes remotely.
It’s unclear if today’s staffing issues will impact students for the remainder of week.
The district is hiring bus drivers and bus aides. Applicants can stop by the Kettering bus compound at 2640 Wilmington Pike for immediate interviews.
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