Central Florida schools are out for summer. While kids are at play, school district leaders are busy trying to fill open positions from teachers to bus drivers.
There are more than 200 open bus driver positions that need to be filled across Central Florida before the start of the new school year.
Brevard County needs 30 bus drivers, Orange needs 100, Seminole is hiring 40 bus drivers, and Volusia is looking for 35 drivers.
Kevin Christian of Marion County Schools said they’re holding a special bus blitz event later this month to hire anywhere from 20 to 40 new drivers.
“We've got upwards of 300 buses on the road," said Christian. "So that's 300 drivers every day. And any given day, probably 10% are out for sickness or for other reasons. So that's 30 drivers right there that we need on a moment's notice.”
Christian said drivers start at $18.65 per hour, with six hours guaranteed daily.
“There's really lots of opportunity for anyone who's 21 years old, has a clean driving record. And of course, will pass the commercial driver's license exam," said Christian. "We help train for that, we do on the road training, we do classroom training, we will do whatever it takes to get you behind the wheel and get you transporting our students to school.”
A bill that would have allowed retiring Florida bus drivers to stay on the roads for up to eight years after announcing their retirement died this year in appropriations.
On top of a bus driver shortage, Florida is facing a teacher shortage. Mid-year, the Florida Education Association reported 5,294 teacher vacancies.
