MILLEDGEVILLE, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Baldwin County parents are dealing with school bus delays, with nine driver positions still unfilled. Baldwin County deputy superintendent Dr. Rodney Tyson says the county didn’t anticipate this issue for this school year. He says the county is working overtime to solve the issue. Dr. Tyson says the district is currently short nine to ten drivers after several drivers left over the summer. He says the shortage is putting pressure on school transportation, but filling those positions will take time. Georgia has a lengthy certification and hiring process for school bus drivers, meaning the district cannot fill the openings overnight. “Just before school started, we had several bus drivers that were no longer eligible to drive buses due to not meeting state requirements for bus drivers anymore,” he said. “We also had several drivers that left the district for other districts for various reasons.” Dr. Tyson says the district made a major recruitment push before the school year ended, making the driver shortage a surprise. “We hired new bus drivers into the summer,” he said. “We got them trained, but the number of drivers we lost outweighed the ones we had trained coming into our system.” He says the district rotates routes each day, so the same students aren’t consistently late getting to school or home. “We start all our schools the same time each day,” he said. “But the new instruction is not starting immediately. We’re doing a…
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