BY JIMMY LAWTON
North Country This Week

St. Lawrence County school districts are facing unprecedented circumstances as COVID-19 exposures are further straining transportation amid a national shortage of bus drivers.

Some county schools are delaying bus runs as COVID-19 exposures are forcing bus drivers to quarantine and many districts are actively seeking to find more drivers.

They aren’t alone, in fact the shortage nationally pre-dates the pandemic. In Massachusetts, the governor has deployed the National Guard to assist with bussing and at least one New York Assembly member has made a similar call.

The problem is exacerbated in rural areas like St. Lawrence County where distances between homes can sometimes span miles.

It’s unknown exactly how widespread the problem is locally as St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES was unable to provide data.

BOCES spokesperson Laken Kelly said Lisbon, Heuvelton and Ogdensburg school districts were all actively seeking to hire bus drivers. But spokespersons for the other school districts did not provide requests for comment.

Job postings in North Country This Week for bus drivers include Hammond, Massena and Parishville-Hopkinton Central School Districts.

She said the schools are doing what they can to provide transportation for students as districts throughout the state are continuing to offer in-person classes only this year.

“Each of the local districts are carefully monitoring the evolving COVID-19 pandemic and adjusting plans as needed to help mitigate its impact. They are taking the necessary steps to protect their students, employees, and community members in these unprecedented times. Delayed bus routes are one of the many reverberations of the protocols that we must implement to ensure the safety of our school communities,” Kelly said.

However, attempts to clarify exactly what those “steps” are were unsuccessful.

At Lisbon Central School some bus routes were being delayed by as much as an hour.

It’s unclear if more children are being placed on a single bus, or if the buses are making additional trips. A phone call made to seek clarification on the matter has not yet been returned.

At some schools superintendents are asking parents to help provide transportation for their children, if they can, in hopes of reducing the over-stressed bus system.

Seeking details on how the districts were managing the problem, Kelly pointed to individual district plans. The plans for transportation posted on Lisbon Central School’s website are quite elaborate, while others like Ogdensburg are much lighter, but neither address protocols related to bus driver shortages.

Lisbon’s plan requires students to be six-feet apart while on the bus, requires some seats on the bus to remain vacant to allow for distancing, which means buses could be filled with just a dozen or so students.

Ogdensburg Central School Districts plan is less restrictive.

Several districts have had COVID-19 exposures however the state of New York has yet to share the data being submitted by local school districts making it hard to grasp the full scope of problems facing the schools here.

However, St. Lawrence County continues to lead the state in COVID-19 positivity rates and is seeing a strain on health care providers.

When asked about the potentially increased risk of exposure for children facing increased time on buses, Kelly provided the following statement.

“To answer your questions about increased risk for students - according to the CDC Guidelines, individuals must quarantine if they have been exposed to someone who is COVID-19 positive for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period. Many of these bus routes exceed 15 minutes whether or not they are delayed. Districts are also requiring universal masking on buses, enforcing social distancing rules, and increasing ventilation whenever possible,” she said in an emailed response.

She also said that schools have prioritized staying open.

“Our priority is keeping children in school, and we have to adapt to changing circumstances while continuing to implement our tiered mitigation strategies to ensure that’s possible,” she said.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has continued to trumpet the need to keep schools open, but has offered little in the guidance as to the best way to accomplish that task aside from an edict that would require unvaccinated teachers to get tested weekly and universal mask mandate inside schools.

Mobilizing the National Guard may help alleviate the bus problem in smaller states like Massachusetts, but no such solution has been brought forward by Hochul yet. It would also likely take a much larger deployment in New York State where the geographic area is five times that of Massachusetts and the population is three times higher.

While many St. Lawrence County School districts have reported COVID-19 exposures to parents, the state has failed to make the reporting done at local school districts regarding positive cases available to the public.

Bus drivers seeking employment are urged to contact local school districts.