BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — If you are a student within a two-mile radius of Bowling Green Middle School or Bowling Green High School, you'll have to find an alternate form of transportation for the school year as the district's school buses will not be an option.
RELATED: Bowling Green City Schools searching for bus drivers amid shortage, maintaining 2022 walking limits
Bowling Green City Schools Superintendent Ted Haselman described the two-mile radius as the majority of the city limits.
"Anyone within that radius will be needing to walk or transport themselves to school," Haselman said.
Haselman said he and his administration know it's frustrating for both parents and students alike.
"Yeah, this isn't something we're happy about," he said. "If we could change it, we would."
But it's an issue that's entirely out of their hands, Haselman said. Even after offering incentives and pay raises, no one has accepted an offer, leaving the district short-staffed entering the school year.
It's an issue that's not unique to BGCS either; headlines across the country have shown other schools are having similar setbacks.
A study from TransitCenter, a public transportation advocacy group, said that people seeking public transportation jobs have nose-dived since the pandemic, leaving school districts scrambling for fixes or, as in Bowling Green's case, canceling rides altogether.
"We're at the mercy of individuals wanting to work," Haselman said.
Because of that, BGCS continues to sweeten the deal for drivers in hopes that eventually, someone will bite.
"We have increased our starting salary for bus drivers, and we offer paid training," Haselman said. "We have instituted a $2,000 signing bonus for drivers so we're very hopeful that we can get some people to step up and help us in this way so we can offer the service to our students."
But there is a light at the end of the tunnel for schools like Bowling Green.
Not even two weeks ago, Maumee City Schools faced a similar problem. However, the district's luck recently changed.
"The Maumee School District has all routes covered to start the year, and three new drivers are joining the Maumee City Schools team when they finish their CDL coursework, road hours, and supervised route driving in the next couple of weeks," a Maumee district official said in a statement. "We remain vigilant in our hiring process because we are very conscious of the driver shortage that some school districts are experiencing."
If you are interested in applying to be a bus driver or a substitute bus driver at BGCS, more information is available at this link.
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