Rockwood Bus Drivers Fill In From California
When a shortage of bus drivers popped up among First Student bus transportation in the Midwest, see where some Rockwood School District local drivers went. That move led to more First Student bus drivers coming to Wildwood to make up the difference.
With job shortages and a depressed economy, who knew it would be challenging for student transportation companies to find qualified drivers? This dilemma even affected First Student, Inc., the transportation entity that supplies buses throughout Rockwood School District—including back to school routes Tuesday.
A tip from a Eureka-Wildwood Patch reader alledged that out-of-state bus drivers arrived in town Monday, leaving "them no time to learn their (Rockwood) routes."
The reader also had heard some local Rockwood bus drivers had been sent elsewhere to make up for a shortage of bus drivers among the U.S. locations serviced by First Student.
Patch verified with a First Student representative on Tuesday they sent 13 of their drivers from the Rockwood area to Omaha, NE, where they were reportedly 100 drivers short. First Student spokesperson Timothy Stokes told Patch a change was prompted when 60 new bus routes were added to the Omaha plan.
To make up for the shortage of drivers in the Rockwood area, Stokes confirmed that 10 drivers from California were brought in to cover.
Despite rumors of not being prepared for new routes, Stokes said the drivers from California did make dry runs within their Rockwood area before driving them for the start of school. He also said First Student managers were pleased with the new drivers, and indicated they had not learned of any issues resulting from Rockwood routes on Tuesday.
A Patch reader indicated the belief was that the drivers from California are staying at The Wildwood Hotel in the city's town center.
Stokes said it was not the first time First Student had shuffled drivers to accommodate fluctuations, and that he did not know how long the bus drivers from California would be staying in Wildwood.
First Student purports to be North America’s leading school bus transportation services company, with a fleet of approximately 60,000 school buses transporting 6 million students to and from school every day.
See related article: How Did Rockwood Transportation Go for First Day Back To School?
In This article
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Rockwood School District -- Administrative Center
111 E North St, Eureka, MO -
Wildwood Town Center Hotel
2801 Fountain Pl, Grover, MO -
russell graves
10:58 pm on Thursday, August 16, 2012
timathy stokes is lying bus 27 was 0ver 40 min late both in the morning and in the afternoon
russell graves
11:15 pm on Thursday, August 16, 2012
Does mr stoke offer any reason why a shortage was created? was the school district consulted? if so why would they sign off on such a mess. & to point out another misstruth the princaple of westridge told me this morning that tuesday was the driver of bus 27 first day driving here in st.louis.this contradicts mr stokes statement. thats 2 lies from mr. stokes.
russell graves
5:07 pm on Friday, August 17, 2012
i now belive that the principal just misspoke and ment monday.so we'll call that a half truth by mr stokes.
Julie Brown Patton
11:17 pm on Thursday, August 16, 2012
Russell, that's a good question about whether Rockwood district officials were consulted or told ahead of time. Please see tomorrow's follow-up article about this matter. Looks like we still have more questions to pose.
russell graves
11:19 pm on Thursday, August 16, 2012
it seems logical that the califonia driver should have been sent to omaha and rockwood keep there drivers .How come that never dawned on first students.
Tom Maher
3:18 pm on Saturday, August 18, 2012
While later explained - why would "it seem logical that the california [sic] driver be sent to omaha [sic] and rockwood [sic] keep there [sic] drivers."?
A little NIMBY perhaps?
Are Rockwood students better than CA or NE students?
I guess so...
russell graves
5:15 pm on Friday, August 17, 2012
I asked William Sloan what his take on mr stokes lies was. he said he did not know who mr stokes was.how come the director of transportation does not know the person who is representing the contactor he is suppost to be over seeing?
Mike K
8:10 am on Saturday, August 18, 2012
To Russell: Today's followup article explains. Omaha has a law that says that their drivers must come from Nebraska or an adjacent state, such as Missouri.